The Last Dreams of Pony Island

by horizon

Moonstruck

Moonstruck

Damn Peridot for dying
on the night that
I bedded Littlemoth!

To have her sneak into my shack
after the honoring of moonrise,
to have her share my cries
as our tangled bodies
sung carnal hymns
to each other
and our Lady Night,
to pin her with my body
until dawn's rosy muzzle
peeked from the covers
of the slumbering horizon,
as she clung to my drained form
as though to anchor me
from the calling of the tides…

And then to have Hotspur
dash in with the news
that Peridot was missing,
her front door wide open
and her bed made!

I recognized the panic
in Littlemoth's face.
To be blamed for something
you could not have done,
based only on the fear
in ponies' eyes.

She knew she would be suspect,
having humiliated Peridot
by calling a dance
and setting the room to revelry
after the old witch
called the March of the Sun
to spite the Nocturne there.

I have heard that same arrogance
from ponies thinking themselves
kinder than Peridot
for wrapping the hoof of intolerance
in a velvet shoe.
I have heard the lies that swirl
out of Quote and the gossipmongers
when they think us out of earshot.

I am sick of the looks,
sick of the whispers,
sick of the job openings
that vanish when I enter,

and sick of the desperation
that forced Littlemoth
to sneak back out my window
and pretend away our tryst
so she could feign devotion
for the Guard pegasus
who might keep her safe.

Even though Peridot
was drowned by a kelpie,
they say we were behind it,
that the monsters conspired
to avenge the witch's insults.

Let them accuse us.

Let the Guard come,
shackles in hoof.

If they wish to oppress us,
they will quickly discover
what monsters we can be.

Comments

[MrNumbers]

What are you doing Horizon.

Why.

[Spectral]

If they wish to oppress us,
they will quickly discover
what monsters we can be.

No matter how many times I read the story, this chapter always manages to give me chills.

[horizon]

6446150
I like a number of the chapters for different reasons, but yeah, I'm happy with that ending and the menace it conveys.

[Bad Horse]

I can't make sense of this chapter without knowing what the different species are, and who's what. Like, "tuft-ears": are they supposed to be pegasi? Is Littlemoth a pegasus? A night pegasus? Earlier there's a reference to her leather wings. Clearly Moonstruck is of a different species or race than Littlemoth, or he wouldn't speak of Littlemoth "keeping herself pure". Yet both of them are regarded as monsters by... the Guard, even though Littlemoth keeping herself pure for them implies she's of the same race as the guard?

You're dropping tiny one-word hints dispersed throughout the story that never tell us what race anypony is, and we're supposed to notice and remember all of them, and put all these constraints together like a set of simultaneous equations to come up with a unique solution, giving us the races of the principle characters, and we have to do that before we can begin working out what the tensions are. It's too much work. Just tell us what race some of the people in the story are.

[horizon]

6464492
It is reasonable to complain that that's not sufficiently clear in the story. For purposes of the contest I've given an explicit explanation at 6424129 : many of the inhabitants, such as Littlemoth and Moonstruck, are "Nocturne" - ponies physically altered by Lunar magic. MLP's "batponies" are Nocturne pegasi, so given that Littlemoth has wings, that's exactly the image you should have in your head of her.

This story assumes that the same effect can happen with all three tribes and "Nocturne" is a collective term for any of them -- though to the average pony resident of Myinnkyun, they're all equally freaks.

[Bad Horse]

6464516

This story assumes that the same effect can happen with all three tribes and "Nocturne" is a collective term for any of them

I don't think that's fair to assume, since it's an idea that's never appeared in canon, & that I've never seen in fanon.