Until three centuries ago, Luna’s chambers had been inaccessible except by either teleportation or flying in through the chambers’ window, though both actions were utterly impossible without Luna herself wishing it to be otherwise. However, her last majordomo, Quick Fix, had felt that this was an unforgiveable situation: despite there being numerous systems both mundane and magical to contact Luna in her chambers if need be, Quick Fix had felt that nothing could beat a good set of stairs.
To make his point, he had disabled all the systems, and then staged a false coup while Luna slept, declaring a state of emergency. With Luna out of contact, various fail-safe systems went into effect, including the sealing off of Canterlot, orders for the emergency conscription of a million ponies, and the existing troops sent to the borders with Zaldia, Pferdreich, the Griffin Kingdoms, and – due to a clerical error – Cavallia.
When Luna had awoken and discovered what was going on, she had fired Quick Fix, recalled the troops, fired Quick Fix again, cancelled the conscription orders, contacted the ambassadors for the nations she had appeared about to invade and apologized profusely, and fired Quick Fix a third time. When he had explained that his goal had simply been to prove how none of this could have happened if Luna had simply had stairs leading to her room with which to contact her, she had noted that simply suggesting that might have been enough, fired him a fourth time, abolished the position of majordomo, and then banished Quick Fix to serve a minor clerical position in the Equestrian embassy to the Griffin Kingdoms until he retired, at which point he was still forbidden to come within a hundred miles of the capital city.
There were numerous results of the false coup – known as the “Stairs Coup” – that persisted to the modern day. The Griffin Kingdoms continued to insist on a demilitarized zone between the Equestrian north and their south; Zaldia, despite being a pony nation, remained well outside Equestria’s sphere of influence; banished to the Griffin Kingdoms was still considered the ultimate political consequence for spectacular failure; Princess Cadenza of Cavallia still told the tale as an embarrassing joke, including to Trixie a few years back; and Princess Luna had installed stairs leading up to her chambers.
All this went through Trixie’s mind as she, head hanging and still choking back tears, realized that she was being carried up those stairs, to Luna’s room. The body beneath her was large and midnight blue and warm, with a heart that beat strongly enough for Trixie to hear it even over the wind of the night, the bustle of the castle, and the clip-clopping of the hooves belonging to the pony – the princess – carrying her up the stairs that spiraled along the outside of the tower, to Luna’s chambers.
Trixie stifled a slight giggle at the thought of the Stairs Coup, her mind grasping at any straw to relieve itself of the utter despair gripping her heart. It didn’t last – the despair came back as surely as the tide, only far quicker. She was only vaguely aware of the door to Luna’s chambers opening, and her being carried inside. A strong, yet soft, telekinetic field surrounded her, lifting her from Luna’s back and depositing her on the bed. Trixie wasted little time grasping at the nearest pillow and burying her face in it. She was aware of Luna sitting down next to her, laying a wing across her back and running one hoof through her mane gently.
Eventually, the tears began to subside, but it was still some time before Trixie glanced up. She’d been in Luna’s room before, of course. The greatest surprise to a pony who only knew Luna by reputation would probably have been how cluttered it was, a chaotic collection of trinkets and treasures, some mere curiosities, some unspeakably magical artifacts, some relatively new, some impossibly ancient, each of them in some way significant to the Princess. Luna couldn’t even claim that there was a method to the chaos – Trixie had herself seen her spend several minutes, or longer, trying to find something, having completely forgotten where’d she’d put it down last. The entire room was dimly lit, bright enough to see or read by, but only just barely, and the illumination was in blues and purples provided by glow-gems set into the ceiling.
Trixie slowly looked to Luna, who was looking at her with a soft smile, though the smile was obviously meant to be a reassuring put-on for Trixie’s benefit, and masked the worry she really felt. “Feeling a little better?” she asked.
Trixie nodded slightly. “Y-yeah,” she said, her voice a little ragged and a lump still in her throat. “A little…” Luna nodded, her horn glowing. A cloth appeared from thin air, and she passed it over to Trixie, who used it to rub her eyes. “Th-thanks…”
“Now,” Luna said, shifting slightly, but only to get more comfortable on her bed. Her wing squeezed Trixie tightly. “What happened?”
Trixie blinked a few times, turning the cloth that Luna had given her over in her hooves. “I…” she began, then stopped, looking to Luna. The Night Court was hers, technically. At least officially, the Night Court was nominally simply what Luna used to help facilitate running the country, all the nobles therein swearing to serve her. From a political standpoint, calling out the Night Court, calling it corrupt or base or horrible, as Trixie was beginning to realize the case, was essentially the same thing as calling Luna those things as well.
She looked away from Luna. “N…nothing,” she lied.
Luna was silent for several long moments. “Trixie,” she said softly. “You know that I don’t believe you when you say that.”
Trixie again glanced to Luna. “I…just had a bad day. A really bad day.”
“I’ve had those,” Luna noted. She considered. “Would this relate to the situation with Viceroy Night Light?”
“No.”
“…and are you lying again?”
Trixie didn’t respond, which was as good as an answer, she knew. Luna let out a sigh, looking away. “I know that you didn’t say those things in the paper,” she said. “Your strength of character has grown considerably since you first became a Representative to Ponyville. I am having an investigation conducted – ”
“It was Fisher,” Trixie blurted without meaning to. Luna looked at her curiously, and Trixie stared back. “Um…” she said. “I…I spoke with viceroy N…Night L-Light tonight, he said it was Archduke Bobbing Fisher.”
Luna frowned. “You spoke with Night Light?” she asked. Trixie nodded. Luna’s eyes glided over her face as she did, taking in every detail and factoring in the stutter that Trixie had displayed when mentioning the viceroy. “He’s the one who made you so distraught,” she surmised.
Nothing, it seemed, stayed secret from Luna for long. Before she knew it, she felt her mouth working, speaking of its own accord. “H…he…I came to Canterlot to try and convince him to send Ponyville money…o-or, I mean, the REMM – and between the newspaper and Greengrass and Blueblood and Fisher trying to stop me and Night Light’s stupid secretary losing my appointment I wasn’t able to s-see him until earlier tonight a-and I had to break into his office to do it, but he d-did see me and said that the guards weren’t necessary so I thought that was good, and I apologized to him f-for what I did to Twilight, I feel awful still, and I told him Ponyville needed the money and he said that he’d already approved it, and the first check sh-should be arriving tomorrow…”
Luna grimaced. “Yes,” she said. “Night Light was…dragging his hooves, I’m afraid. I think I’ve impressed upon him, however, that such abuses of his power – making a town suffer to just get to you – will not be tolerated.”
“B-but that’s the thing!” Trixie exclaimed hysterically. “That’s just it! He said that h-he knew he’d never get away with it, a-and yeah, he’s s-sent the money, but he’s gonna…he’s gonna dedicated everything to…to making sure I never get into the Night Court!”
Luna blinked a few times at that, before turning away and heaving a long sigh. “I see,” she said. “I had hoped that he was still salvable…”
Trixie looked away as well. “And I got to th-thinking,” she said, fresh tears coming to her eyes. “And…and I realized…all those stories? How everypony thinks that the Night Court is evil and just full of selfish ponies who only want to hurt each other? They’re right. M-me and my friends have been threatened and intimidated and we didn’t even do anything…a-and I ran into Duchess Fragrant, and she thought that I was trying to intimidate her family when I didn’t even know Fluttershy was a Posey…and I got to thinking, and I realized, I r-realized that I’ve been wrong. That the problems we’d been having weren’t Greengrass’ fault, th-that if it wasn’t him it’d just b-be somepony else…that the entire Night Court is the problem!”
Trixie flinched, expecting a rebuke from Luna. When it didn’t come, she looked back to Luna, who’s smile had dropped, and she was just looking at Trixie sadly. Trixie stared back. “W-well?” she demanded, sniffing and wiping her eyes again. “Th…this is where…Princess, you’re s…s-supposed to tell me that I’m wrong.”
Luna considered, visibly weighing her next words. “There are good ponies in the Night Court,” she said. “You mentioned Duchess Fragrant. There are others. But…the entire Night Court doesn’t need to be corrupted to create an atmosphere of fear and distrust. Not even most of it. Just enough, in the right places, cowing the rest into submission.”
Trixie blinked rapidly a few times as she took in Luna’s words. “Y…you knew…?” she asked.
Luna looked away. “Yes,” she said softly.
Trixie shot up and out from under Luna’s wing. “Wh-what?” she demanded as she stood, turning around. “How could you let this happen?”
Luna’s eyes met Trixie’s own. “Do you honestly believe that I let it?” she asked.
Trixie stared. “Well…” she said. “Then…then why aren’t you doing anything about it?”
“What makes you think that I am not?”
Trixie jabbed a hoof out Luna’s window. It happened to face in the rough direction of Ponyville. Her melancholy was being swiftly replaced by anger now. “Because of what just happened! In Ponyville! What’s been happening to my friends for the past half a year!”
Luna ruffled her wings. “This is a…period of transition, Trixie. It will be uncomfortable. Painful, even. But I promise you, Trixie, that I am trying to control the transition as much as I can, keep the fallout, the pain, to a minimum.”
Trixie stared. “What?” she demanded. “What are you talking about?”
Luna considered again. “A thousand years ago,” she said, “when the dust had finally settled from my sister’s – from Corona’s – rampage, when I had returned to Canterlot, it took me two decades to fully repair the damage to Equestria and turn it into a strong, growing nation again. When I once again convened the Night Court, it was full of noble ponies looking to put the past behind them, to move forward, to do what was right for Equestria. And they did. And so did their successors…most of them. Some of them were more concerned with their own petty gratification over the needs of the nation.” Luna looked to Trixie. “And the next generation barely remembered the time of Corona’s rampages. They had even less reason to care for the state over themselves. And so on…and so forth. Every few years the make-up of the Court grew a little worse, their morals a little more open to compromise.”
Luna shook her head. “And I tried, Trixie, to root out corruption wherever it was. And I succeeded, most of the time…but not all the time. And as more and more ponies and nobles in the Court grew complacent and decadent, I began to miss more and more, and the ponies of Equestria suffered. So, finally, four centuries after Corona – six hundred years ago - I decided that enough was enough. I instituted a series of large-scale investigations into the affairs of the nobles of the Court. I discovered that as many as half of the Court were involved in some kind of scandal or racket or otherwise abusing their position for their own gratification. Over the course of a decade, I exposed them, had them tried for the crimes, and dealt with them as appropriate for those crimes. Eventually I had purged the Night Court of all corruption, or close enough. New nobles were created or elevated and the Night Court was once again strong and true to the ideals of Equestria.”
Luna stopped, looking at Trixie expectantly. The blue unicorn stared back for several seconds. “But…” she ventured. “But it happened again.”
Luna grimaced even as she nodded. “And I tried, once more, to stop it on a case-by-case basis. And once again, some corruption would begin to slip through the cracks, and it built up – but this time, having the experience of the past to draw upon, I began the widespread investigations and purges sooner, recognizing what was happening and stepping in before the corruption spread too far. Roughly a third of the Night Court had to be purged – rather than half, as before. And the crimes committed were not as…debased…as the first time.”
Luna closed her eyes, casting her head down. “It is the nature of governments to go through this cycle of golden age, fall into decadence and corruption, purge themselves, and then rise once more. I try to make the transition as smooth as I can. But...but there will always be incidents that slip through the cracks, no matter how much I try.”
“Oh really?” Trixie demanded, the anger, the heat in her head and her throat and heart, wasn’t abating in the slightest at Luna’s explanation. “So that’s all this is to you? Just some cycle?”
Luna grimaced. “No,” she said, standing. “Trixie, this isn’t some kind of plan. I try to fight against ponies who abuse the system whenever I can. But there are limits, very strict limits, on what even I can and cannot do. Laws like right to privacy and innocent until proven guilty apply to the nobles just as much as to commoners. I need plausible evidence before I can ever intervene in any matter in a legal sense even on an individual level – let alone the evidence I require to launch an investigation of the entire Night Court.”
“But you’re the princess!” Trixie hissed, stomping closer to Luna. “You don’t need any kind of justification! That’s your Night Court! The nobility are supposed to be an extension of your will! What they’re doing reflects back on you!”
“So what you are suggesting,” Luna said, raising a hoof and pointing out her chambers’ window, “is that I should trot out there and begin rounding up ponies I suspect to be corrupt?”
“Yes!”
“And then charge them with the crimes I all but know they have committed, but for which I have no direct evidence?”
“Yes! Because you’re the princess! It’s your job to protect Ponyville from things like this, but right now you don’t seem to be doing all that much, and this…this cycle thing…!”
Luna’s grimace worsened. “Shall I pass judgment upon them too?” Luna asked, her horn glowing slightly. “After all, I am the highest authority in the land, on parchment anyway. Perhaps this should be true in reality as well? I am an alicorn, an immortal. For millennia have I looked upon the world and seen its course and learned good from evil, right from wrong. Who better to pass judgment than I?”
Trixie stared, Luna’s words cutting through Trixie slightly. “N…well, no, probably not…” she said. “I mean…just round them up, but send them to courts and give them trials…”
“Ah, but Trixie,” Luna said, beginning to pace slowly around Trixie, as her horn’s glow intensified somewhat. The color was beginning to bleed from her coat, making it increasingly darker, while her mane and tail were gradually flowing with more and more abandon, extending and curling like they had a will of their own – and was she getting taller? “Within the courts would not the nobles have a chance to fabricate evidence in their favor, to simply weasel out of any sentence and so continue to corrupt and debase my Night Court? We are speaking of the richest and most influential ponies in Equestria. No, it would be far better if I, in my immortal wisdom, were to pass judgment.”
Luna completed a circuit around Trixie, her pace quickening. By now her coat was more black than blue, and her mane and tail long and sinuous, curling around Trixie’s hooves as though wondering if they could grab her, while her regalia shifted to appear more like armor, including her crown. “Exiles and dungeons for the lot of them. But wherefore should I replace them? Wherefore should I allow the cycle to continue? I can do everything they can do, wouldst thou not agree? Wherefore should I leave it to them?”
Her second circuit complete, Luna’s eyes had changed, the irises expanding while the pupils had narrowed to dragon-like slits. “Mayhaps the Night Court be abolished altogether?” Luna asked, at last stopping her circling of Trixie. “Perhaps I should instead reign, as is my right, as no mere Princess. What sayest thee to that? Should I crown myself as Equestria’s unchallenged, uncompromised, undimmed Queen?” she punctuated the last with a stomp of her hoof, which caused her mane and tail to stutter and fully animate of their own accord, curling around the room in a great cloud that roiled with stars, and an open-mouthed grimace that showed rows of sharp, pointed teeth. She had become a dark twin to the Tyrant Sun, a black Queen of the Night.
But the look on her face was one that did not, in any way, match any that Trixie had seen Corona make – nor did it fit what Luna had just been saying. It was an expression of resigned sadness and melancholy, mixed almost with desperation. Trixie stared at Luna. “You’re not your sister,” she said.
The dark twin of Corona blinked, and all at once the illusions surrounding Luna collapsed into deep blue, starry smoke that was quickly pulled out the window and into the nighttime air. She let out a long, tired sigh. “But what you are suggesting,” Luna said, “is the path that lead Celestia to becoming Corona. And it is not merely one step on that path, but rather a headlong gallop down its length.”
Trixie blinked a few times. “But…why can’t you just fix it? Okay, I get it, there’s limits to what you can do…but even within those limits…”
“I try,” Luna said. “I really am trying, Trixie, I swear to you. Four hundred years ago, a town wronged by a noble pony would have no legal recourse beyond a direct appeal to the Crown. The elevation of all mayoral offices to Lordships and the appointment of the Representatives, by my decree, changed that. It was met with considerable resistance from the nobility, however.” She looked down. “Or, even as soon as two centuries ago, a pony who did not own land would have been a second-class citizen. That was not my doing, it was a pony named Brilliant Orange, but I made my support of the program of change publically known. Then there are the education programs to which the Crown donates hundreds of thousands of bits every year – nearly everypony in Equestria can read and write and receives a basic education as a result, something that would have been unheard of three centuries ago, something today taken for granted but which creates much more equality between the commoners and the nobility.
“I try, Trixie. I cannot claim to always get everything right…sometimes I wonder if indeed I can get anything right. But I am trying, as best I can.” Luna stared at Trixie. “You and your friends…you were caught in the crossfire, naked and nearly defenseless. For that, I can only offer my apologies, and a solemn promise that I shall take whatever steps I can to prevent it in the future.”
Trixie blinked a few times, wiping her eyes again. “It’s not right,” she said. “It’s not fair.”
“No, it is not.”
“Nopony else is playing by the rules…”
“But I must. Because I am the Princess.”
Trixie didn’t agree. Trixie was certain that there was something she could say, some argument she could make, that Luna wouldn’t be able to respond to, that would make her see that what she was doing was wrong, that the government in Equestria was wrong, that the whole thing should be swept aside and rebuilt from scratch from the ground-up. But she couldn’t summon up the will to think up that argument, and looking at Luna, all she saw was her mentor staring back, not willing to admit that Trixie was right any more than Trixie was willing to do the reverse – simply no longer wanting to fight.
Almost without realizing it, Trixie trotted forward, embracing Luna tightly, not wanting to fight either. Luna returned it eagerly, hooves and wings both holding her apprentice tightly.
“I will make sure that Night Light knows that his actions are reprehensible – that he will not be welcome in my presence if he cannot abandon this campaign of hate against you,” Luna promised Trixie. “And if…if this whole state of affairs has soured you to the thought of entering the Night Court, then whatever else you choose to make of your life, I will support that as well. It has been one of my greatest hopes that you could enter the Night Court and help me change it for the better – but over and above that, I want you to be happy. That will never change.”
Trixie smiled weakly as she withdrew from Luna, nodding. “Thanks,” she said. “I…I don’t know. I just…don’t know anything, right now…”
Luna offered a thin-lipped grin of her own at that. “Welcome to my life,” she said. She took in a breath, then exhaled a long, weary sigh. “Now, I have to go attend to my duties. And I am sorry, Trixie, but I remember what happened last time I left you in my room unsupervised.”
Trixie blushed slightly, vividly remembering her brief stint as the masked empress of the moon. She nodded as she followed Luna from her chambers, out the door and back to the stairs. Luna kept one eye on her as the two descended. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” she said.
Trixie nodded. She paused when the two reached the bottom of the stairs, however, the two of them standing in the vast Balcony Room that had a map of Equestria and its neighbors on its floor, and a ceiling that was a star chart made from precious gems.
An idea had occurred to her. It was a bad one.
“What if…” Trixie ventured anyway. “What if there was something I could do, to help this cycle thing?”
Luna blinked, giving Trixie a sidelong glance. “Trixie…” she warned.
“No, wait,” Trixie said, holding up her hooves. “Just…just hear this out…”
Hmmm. I do know that Ditzy knows the name "Nightmare Moon"; now Trixie has seen her.
In any event, this is the civics lesson that I sort of expected: every so often, Luna has to muck out the stable.....so to speak. And this is one of those times. Too bad that Twilight's stupidity and irrational fear of admitting being fallible has turned Daddy into one of the more rancid turds to be disposed of.
Oh no. Trixie has a plan.
I'm sorry that you felt you needed to write this chapter, because I know that the way certain readers are interpreting the Night Court isn't anything like how you wrote it initially. I think you've done a good job of it, regardless.
So, Quick Fix... descended from King Sombra, Unicorn Lord of Stairs?
Luna's love for Trixie is really touching here. Luna didn't even know why Trixie was crying, but she carried her up the stairs to her room (which was probably a comforting gesture by itself, since she could easily have teleported) and sat with her until she could explain why. That's beautiful.
Instead of the Night Court, you would have a Queen! Beautiful and terrible as the night! ... yeah, I think Luna made the right call here. She especially doesn't want to follow Celestia's example.
Aha, a new chapter! Now's the time to raise hell because I'm an impossible-to-please rotten bastard and make RDD's life miserable!
...
...
I...actually liked this one. No, really, I did...for the most part, I mean. I'm still not totally on board with the whole cycle thing, but you leave enough wiggle room for both a positive and negative interpretation of Luna's plans. (Of course, I could point out that their are alternatives other than "Become evil queen." Oh, and way to go perpetuating Disney's hatred of queens.) Still, the interaction between Trixie and Luna, the backstory of the stairs, and the hints at the end are nice. Overall, this is the first chapter in the whole story I would classify as "Good," so unless something goes wrong down the line...
Sorry, "Boast Busted." Looks like you're all alone again. Now go sit in the corner and think about your life.
Luna leads by example. And occasional bouts of applied social Darwinism. Works for me.
Also, the stairs anecdote was a lovely link to Luna's gradually becoming more accessible over the years.
Fastening my seat-belt in preparation for Trixie's incoming plan.
Well that line pisses me off at Luna, largely because it shows how terrible of a ruler she actually is if she is willing to throw a stallion who has given her years of faithful service under the bus because he has a grudge against a pony she prefers. I'm also a tad disappointed that there wasn't any discussion of why Night Light is angry, but the rest of the chapter was fine.
Personally, I'm hoping that the plan for the gala is something along the lines of Ice Palace 2: Icicle Boogaloo.
OK that stair coup was one of the most brilliant developments in the history of ever!
Also love the idea of Cadence telling Trixie.
Luna carrying a distraught Trixie is sad but so adorable! and the comforting crying scene
Love the idea of Luna being super messy.
I liked Luna's explanation for why she has to obey the rules when working, I kinda still want some calling her out on the element thing, but blame Oaton for giving me that idea.
The explanation for the court and the cleaning system was good as well, it leaves a good deal of room for personal interpretation and it doesn't seem ridiculousally controlled or frequent. Plus liked the explanation behind the nobles steadily falling over the course of generations.
... they hugged!
I really want to know about this masked empress of the moon thing
Trixie has a plan a crazy cunning plan, I fully support it! I almost wanted Luna to be kept out of it and surprised but her knowing has just as much awesome charm. Anyway great chapter overall and more Luna Trixie interaction is wonderful, I loved your take on Luna and Trixie in this fic, well like all other fics really, but still and Luna talking about how she's tried to improve and do things right how representatives came to be, YES! i love world building so this was an even better chapter for me than ever!
Looking forward to the next one.
Very good chapter. I especially enjoyed Luna pulling a minor variation of Galadriel to make her point about why she doesn't take a more direct approach to the issue of corruption in the court. ...and the whole "stairs coup" that's just hilarious. , though I'm uncertain if she fired her majordomo enough times.
Anyway, now I'm back to the point where I need one more good chapter like this to restore my full faith in this fic. My support for the general direction of the fic is was already made unshakable in the previous chapter (and this one latest only made it more so), but I still think the first chapter was a horrible way to start things off, and that the forth chapter was just dragging the whole getting to see Night Lite plot out too long. So now I sit here with 4 chapters I rate positively and 2 that I rate negatively; I suppose that should mean that I already like this fic more that I don't, but well, I'm being extra picky I guess and it will take over double the good here to beat back the bad.
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Glad you're finding something to like here. Not to argue the matter, but while yes there are probably better ways Luna could handle the court, and while yes it really isn't a simple binary choice where her only alternative is to reign as an evil tyrant. Still, even an immortal like Luna is bound by her own personal perspective, so what matters most here is her own emotionally imposed self-limitations as to the kinds of actions she's willing to take.
Besides I don't see her as all that much worse than a certain interpretation of Celestia who was pretty much screwing up her own court of nobles just as badly (if while isolating them sufficiently that there petty squabbling had limited ramifications for the rest of Equestria), to the point that even once they decided to clean up their acts they were still prone to resort to kidnapping children as a means to make personal apologies because they didn't know any better.
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I could almost buy into that head canon.
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I sort of do to, but it's probably just another Ice Palace Incident such as it where. An amusing reference to Trixie's past failing and likely never to be addressed beyond that. Probably for the best to as I doubt the reality would live up to the kinds of thing we could imagine it to be.
she doesn't have to convinct them. Just tell them she knows what they're up to and they'd hang themselves and she could just shuffle them off to unimpotant jobs.
Trixie has a plan! EVERYPONY RUN!
I'll parrot what the others above me said and thought the interactions between Trixie and Luna here were beautiful. Both need a shoulder to cry on every now and then and it's good that each cares for the other in her own way. Trixie really has come a long ways since the beginning in so short a time.
Heh, Stair Coup. Only something as ridiculous as that could happen in the MLP world. Vote Pro-Stairs!
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...Um....hi, yeah, this isn't actually RDD typing right now, it's Trixie from the Lunaverse. I sort of crossed dimensional boundaries after...well, look, point is you killed him, IAH. RDD is dead from shock at reading this line. Thanks a lot, now we'll never get Crisis.
Hey, how come Twilight gets six emotes and I only get two?!
One Mare. One Gala. One Mission.
TO RAISE HELL THE LIKES THAT WOULD MAKE DISCORD HIMSELF JEALOUS WITH ENVY!
edit: I was rereading it, and there was one line in here that really struck me.
“Th…this is where…Princess, you’re s…s-supposed to tell me that I’m wrong.”
This line here? Genius.
Apparently running the Night Court is a lot like cooking stock. You have to let it simmer a while so the scum rises to the top and then skim it off.
Okay so there's nothing Luna can do but allow for a natural cycle of corruption and purgings, because her only other option is to go full Nightmare Moon mode.
Or, hey, do whatever the hell canon!Celestia did.
Celestia: "Corruption cycles? Oh, balls no, I've managed to hold this streak up for centuries. Check the sign."
NO POLITICAL ASSHOLES IN [155959] DAYS
Celestia: "What, it's not like my little sister couldn't have done the same in my place--oh. ...Oh. ...Ooooooh."
I thought this was going to sort of be the arc of this story now from the last chapter. It's very nice to see that the whole evil Night Court bit will likely be toned down quite substantially following the ending to this. It was also very encouraging to see Trixie and Luna's interactions as that felt very natural indeed and with Trixie in the place she was with the last chapter it was quite needed to really move this forward. The problem though is that really now isn't the time to engage in any sort of political purges. You're technically a nation at war. Would've liked to see that as a consideration as to why Luna's not starting the process as well.
Also very well done was Luna and Trixies relationship. It's nice to see the two interact and for Luna to be the one comforting her. It shows a lot of lightness to this universe and is something I wish we saw a little more often. I'd love for there to be at some point some more details of Trixie's foalhood and Luna and her having these little moments from that time. Think it'd help to really establish the two characters all the more.
One last thing I'd like to see is Night Light realizing that what their family has been doing in Twilight's name is simply wrong. It'd be nice if rather then being torn down by Trixie's plan that they instead step down realizing the misery that's been caused. It'd also be nice if Trixie even offers to go find Twilight really.
Anyway overall a very nice chapter. Can't say that I'm super excited about the in contrast to your other stories still as the politics just feel a little off but regardless of that this is becoming a increasingly successful story and I understand the motivations behind it more as being essential for the universe moving forward. Thanks for sharing.
Well...
It's about goddamned time something goes Trixie's way. I liked this chapter more than the previous 2-3 combined. Luna has... not a bad idea concerning the Night Court, but there's massive room for improvement.
Like getting rid of Night Light, for starters. Make him bleed, and not in any metaphorical sense. Also, the Stair Coup? Brilliant!
And now to ruin everything for you by providing... a visual reference for Trixie, Masked Empress of the Moon!
i.imgur.com/DUO4k.png
Behold the Dreaded Evil Mask!
...
Yeah, I know you probably meant this.
i.imgur.com/YmADb.jpg
Just getting you back for your comment on my story!
1798633
To be fair, that interpretation portrayed the whole thing as a legitimate screw-up that could have been fixed much sooner had Celestia realized what kind of an impact she really had. Here, the whole purging and cycling of nobles is pretty much presented as the only viable option outside of becoming a complete tyrant, although RDD does leave some grayness to the proceedings with Trixie's reaction. Also, good job pointing out the nobles; the former were pretty much smoozers and jerkasses, but in the end they had almost no impact on Equestria, while this story has shown the impact one noble can have on a decimated town when he's out for revenge on a single resident.
1798989
My bad, everyone. Get a necromancer, quick!
Because Twilight is best pony.
1799580
I think, however, both interpretations hinge on the respective princess feeling somewhat helpless to prevent the problems. The solution for RDD's Luna is to let things progress, naturally mitigate the damage as best she can, and when things get out of control start making examples to straighten everypony else out again. The solution for your Celestia was to basically just ignore the problem, to seal off all the nobles in their own little world where all their excessive decadence and petty rivalries could hurt nopony but each other. Neither is entirely the right choice, as the former allows some pretty bad stuff to happen along the way, but the latter limits the potential good the nobles could accomplish through judicious application of their centralized wealth and influence.
I'd like to think it all shows that what both sisters need most of all is the support of the other. Neither one of them has the the perfect solution by themselves, and it's only together that they can build an even better Equestria.
No one was spared. Not even the children.
Loved this chapter, an interesting idea as to what an immortal ruler would do with the perpetual corruption of a noble court. Usually the idea isn't so much a cycle, but turning the nobles against each other in a way that makes them police themselves but not too much to cause wars. The Roman system comes to mind; every governor that returned from a province was usually brought to trial by their questor (i.e. senate ranked accountant) for embezzlement, regardless of whether they did it or not. Even returning war heroes had to deal with immediate political attacks on their actions once they got home, which probably kept them a bit more honest. Voting system eventually turned into bribery and armies but hey...
1799745
Which is sort of the point: sooner or later every system falls into corruption. Luna's simply trying to mitigate the fallout and speed things along.
1799688
Very much so. Both are perfectly capable of ruling strong, prosperous, wealthy, and generally good and moral nations, but both require the other sister to fill in the gaps in their ruling styles.
You always amaze me RDD in how much cool character interaction and development you can put into around 4k words.
Hm, good to see Trixie getting proactive now. I look forward to seeing what's she's got planned.
1798598 She's clearly not wanting to throw him under a bus if he is still in power, but if he's abusing his power for a grudge... well that's a crime.
1799908 Mostly I'm just irritated that Luna would declare him as not salvable because of the grudge, which frankly I think most any parent would have in his place, and not because of the whole withholding of disaster aid issue. Considering how willing Luna was to destroy the careers of any musician who attempted and failed the Symphony challenge because of the insult to her sister, you'd think she would be a little more understanding of a father's concern for his family too.
1798343 LNLD isn't sharing that corner?
The chapter itself...That stairs thing was amazing! Otherwise though... A lot of it felt like a giant, but necessary Exposition dump of how the Court works, and why the Court is seemingly full of nasty jerks. Not really a bad or good thing, though It certainly adds more then if this chapter was "Kick Trixie 4: Return of the kicks."
And if the hints are what I'm fairly certain is the discussed removal of the threat that is GG...Wouldn't Luna be against it? As in, wouldn't doing what is planned almost the exact opposite of what Luna just said is what and why she does things like she does?
1800307
Nah, LNLD only got a rating of "Meh." Boast Busted got a full-on "Awful." That's why it got the corner, while LNLD only get a time out and no dessert.
1799998
True. But she never went so far to ruin the musician´s relatives too. In fact, she was near merciless but fair in her sentences: Sweet Song was pardoned once discovered her brother, Off Beat, was the one who orchestrated her play to get rid of her. Piano Armour was forbidden to play again, but Luna lent enough money to save her family.
1800688: Piano Amour was warned to be very cautious about performing before Luna again, but not forbidden from it. (She opted, however, not to push her luck, and retired from public performances).
1799998
There's a reason I included as one of Luna's lines sometimes I don't think I can get anything right.
Luna has two big character flaws: substance abuse, and almost crippling feelings of self-doubt.
Trixie gon go all ice palace incident and melt the entire night court.
1801241
Oh no. This isn't gonna be like the Ice Palace.
The Ice Palace was an accident. This?
THIS IS COMPLETELY INTENTIONAL!!!
1801085 Fair enough.
1799882 If I had to guess seriously, I'd bet it's going to involve some sort of mass application of the Truth is a Curse serum from a few stories back. Trixie could hardly keep her mouth shut when she was hopped up on it and confronted with Pokey, dozens of Night Court nobles crammed in a few ballrooms together with each other, the very ponies they have been scheming against and backstabbing? Delicious, delicious chaos.
Edit: Oh god, there's thumbs up and thumbs down on comments now... I love this chapter and agree with everyone else's comments!
This was another really nicely handled chapter. It's nice to see Trixie and Luna showing some real affection towards one another and having a tender scene.
I wonder what Trixie's up to....oh well, if Trixie's involved it can only mean good things! Right?
...Oh.
This is such a fascinating comparison between Luna's and M!verse Celestia's ruling styles. Luna lets her ponies make their mistakes and helps clean up when necessary. Celestia rules like a kindergarten teacher. She only lets her ponies make mistakes in a safe and controlled environment that can never hurt too bad. I really want to see them meet now.
Additional thought that just occurred to me: one thing I think is important to remember is, we don't actually know anything about Twilights family sans herself and her brother, her parents we've seen twice and they had no speaking roles. All we know is they were happy when their children did well and managed two raise to good children into adulthood, though in both verses Twilight fell to social isolation but yeah.
Also I look forward to seeing what Luna does to help ensure the elements are protected
Really good chapter. Nice to see Luna and Trixie's feelings.
1802866
Apart from the fact that she appears to occasionally do paperwork, we don't actually know anything about Celestia's ruling style: pretty much everything is guesswork and vague suppositions based on practically nothing which could be turned into practically anything.
For example, when Celestia tells somepony to do something, they do it. But is this because she actually is an autocrat and her words are backed up by force of law; or is she simply telling somepony to do something, and they do so out of respect, much as how if Emperor Akihito asked something of any Japanese person, they'd obey him even though they don't technically have to?
Or, Twilight Sparkle is terrified of being punished by her teacher. But can Celestia really mete out the punishments that Twilight ascribes to her, or is Twilight just being paranoid? Her friends think she's silly, but then again it also keeps coming up. Further, do Celestia's supposed punishments stem from the fact that she's the Princess of Equestria, or because she's Twilight's teacher?
And then, of course, there's Luna's role in all this. The fandom likes to suppose that Equestria is a diarchy, split between Celestia and Luna, but Celestia's name is invokved far more often then Luna's, and the Hearth's Warming Eve play began with "long ago, before the peaceful reign of Celestia," with no mention of Luna. If Equestria were a diarchy then that would be an unforgivable faux pas. So it's entirely possible that despite both Celestia and Luna being Princesses, Celestia's the one with all the actual political power and is therefore more akin to a Queen, which funnily enough is what Lauren Faust originally intended anyway.
1803801
Too be fair, By the time the Hearth's Warming Eve play took place in the show, Luna was either remembered as a holiday joke-villain, or the Princess who betrayed them all for the better part of 1000 years, and was only recently restored. Expecting all the faux pas that built up over 1000 years to be gone would be like teaching a monkey to learn to fly a jet. Would happen eventually, but it would take a loooooooong time.
Loved this chapter! I haven't read every single story of the Lunaverse yet, but I think this is the longest scene of Luna and Trixie interacting I've seen. It was nice to see Luna give her student some real, genuine comfort for once (Trixie hasn't had it easy in the season 1 stories so far), but still be the no-nonsense realist.
It may sound sadisdic, but I really liked Trixie's utter and complete break down at beginning (and ending of the last chapter). I enjoy stories that take their heroes to an absolute low point and have them rise again (and make it work, which you did ).
Luna: "I want you to be happy."
Trixie: "I'd be really happy if you booted Night Light from his position and gave me the unicorn viceroy spot!"
Luna: "I don't want you to be that happy."
Great chapter!
1804130
Exactly! Plus Luna just returned form 1000 years of banishment so she'd be out of date "canterlot voice, ETC" just her back in charge of half the country or giving her a powerful influential political position so quickly would be a poor decision, as she'd likely have no idea how to handle all the changes.
1807227
I really liked this chapter. If there is something I always love seeing more of it's Trixie and Luna have scenes together. It's not something that is able to be worked into many stories but I do still like it when we are able to get it.
The story of the Stair's coup was brillant.
I do wish we could actually see these Luna/Night Light interactions, I know that's not the intended focus but I'd enjoy seeing how she deals with someone like Night Light.
The discussion between Trixie and Luna about the Night Court was good, It covered all the required bases and it was all stuff that needed to be said. I think the thing that I liked most is the part where Trixie decided to let the arguement go. Luna may not have convinced her completely but she has grown to the point where she is not continuing a argument that won't lead anywhere. Also it was touching that Luna would fully support Trixie if she decided to give up the Night Court and pursue something else.
I do also like that the Trixie and Luna dynamic does include discussion and disagreement. I love the Twilight/Celestia dynamic from the Mane-verse but at the end of the day, Twilight is a bit of a yes-mare, Celestia could say that the sky is green and Twilight would spend the rest of the day trying to find the research that would prove her right.
So Trixie has an Idea, somehow I manage to feel both scared and excited
1808057
Twilight and Celestia, and Trixie and Luna, each have a sort of mother-daughter relationship going on, though the devil's in the details. With Twilight and Celestia, Twilight is kind of like an adolescent daughter. She's eager to please mom, goes to mom first for any big problems, doesn't question her advice, is afraid to get into trouble with her, and so on.
With Trixie and Luna, it's more like the relationship between a teenaged girl and her mom. Trixie is growing up and getting into trouble in big-girl ways, but she also needs - no, wants - no, demands - the space necessary to grow up in. She knows that mom doesn't actually always have all the answers and is determined to be able to find those answers on her own, but deep down inside her first instinct is still to go to mom, and secretly wishes she could get over her own pride and just be more open about it.
1799294
What the hell did M!Celestia do? The nobles we've seen in the M!verse haven't exactly been the nicest of ponies
1798598
It's not that he had a grudge against Trixie, it's that he let that grudge hurt an entire town of uninvolved ponies.
This plan can only end badly. Some of the nobles play hardball, but aren't callous and try to mitigate fallout.
1812521
Oh, make no mistake, many of the nobles of Canon Equestria are indeed stuck-up assholes, that much is certain.
But they aren't Political Assholes, which is a different thing entirely. Their assholishness has never been shown to directly interfere with the administration of the nation, unlike basically everything within the Night Court.
1812567
How much politicking have we seen in the M!verse?
There's a reason why the two things you never watch being made a laws and sausage.
Story is still on the upswing; everyone's already said what I was thinking. All is right with the world.
1801085
Substance abuse?! Please make this a fanifiction spinoff
1859740
It's touched on in "An Early Reunion," but the long and short of it is that Luna gets addicted to things rather more easily than you'd expect. She went on a twelve-year drinking binge after banishing Celestia to the sun, and she was easily drawn in by the lure of dark magic.
1859780 Oh, substance abuse as in alcohol. I was picturing something... a little less legal. And far more colorful.