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Where the canon of FoE leaves plenty open for interpretation (and sidefics galore), I followed suit with an untold story about fears, friendship, and everything in between. Here's a little snippet of what I'm writing about...
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[cue plot idea]
Nightmare Moon is still ever so present in the FoE universe and she's lies in Princess Luna's soul (her alter ego, if you will). She haunts Luna's conscience, her thoughts, her emotions, her very own dreams. She's there whenever Luna looks in the mirror. It's her voice whenever Luna speaks. And in such a time of strife and grief, Nightmare Moon's presence is consuming Luna once again. As the stress of the war wanes heavily of her and the every looming influence of NMM clouds her thoughts, Luna desperately seeks a way to rid herself of this old enemy of hers.
In FoE canon, there was a unicorn known as Midnight Shower. She was the royal astronomer to Luna. Along side Midnight Shower was her twin sister,, Midnight_Sonata. She's was Luna's royal pianist. (As you would imagine, both Midnight ponies sought for the stars, one more literally than the other.) But Luna needed their aid for a completely different task. She sent Shower on her way to Zebratown with a piece of starmetal, hoping that she would uncover zebra myths about it and their (ever so dark) alchemy of the zebras would hold some kind of solution for her torment. (The starmetal piece was kept by Luna from NMM's broken armor.) Luna serviced Sonata to do "less direct" research instead; she was to make the same inquiries on the zebras' mysterious ways, but instead, Sonata was to extract this info from well known and talented zebra musicians, actors, etc. (because it was Sonata's profession, being a pianist, that would allow him to be among the right individuals). Sonata would eventually find some valuable info (from the Black Book itself), info that (hopefully) would split Luna from the dark spirit of NMM within her. Touching on FoE canon once more, Shower was tragically killed by a mob at Zebratown for her own research efforts. Sonata was... [Insert emotional trauma here!]
With the knowledge from the Black Book, Luna would go to make the starmetal piece into a soul jar and split part of her own soul into it. The part that was (or that she had hoped to be) NMM. Then Luna gave Sonata the piece and sent her to go "dispose of it completely". How would Sonata do that? [insert Sonata's brainstorm of destruction ideas here: throw it into the Everfree Forest, chuck it into the sea, drop it into the volcano by Ponyville, so on...] But on Sonata's way out of Canterlot, the zebra planted pink cloud bomb would be set off. The princess' shield would go up and trap Sonata inside of the city. To be killed by the pink cloud. What came next was Ghoulification, Canterlot-style. The starmetal piece had also embedded itself into *her* chest. [it was the last thing she clung onto as she died]
Sonata would go to find Luna dead. And truly, she didn't know what to do next. She didn't feel hungry, she didn't feel cold or warmth, she couldn't sweat, she couldn't even cry... Sonata didn't even know /what/ she was now. All she tried to do was cry. To cry for her lost sister, for the dead princess, for all of Equestria. She simply wailed and screamed but no tears ever came. Eventually, she got up and wandered away from Canterlot. She was numb. She ended up ignoring anything and everything across her path. The ruins of the once astounding city, Canterlot. The bodies of the ponies that once lived. Even other canterlot ghouls and their offers of safety (to what would become Stable City). She was completely and utterly numb. She just kept moving. On and on and on.
And when the storm past, there was another one on its way. The Starmetal piece on Sonata's very chest, which was fused along with her heart, had its own kind of surprise for her. The soul jar was living and it had both Luna AND NMM's soul trapped inside. Sure, they were faint fractions of their former selves but they were more than enough to begin to taunt Sonata's mind with their voices, their cries for control. Her own psyche was slowly but surely being taken over by the soul jar. And it came in full force: from Luna's memories to NMM's hatred. From Luna's fears to NMM's venegeance. Sonata's own willpower and sanity was being lost with every second as she trudged across what was once the great nation of Equestria.
This would ultimately bring Sonata into cultivating the fate of the newly made Equestrian Wasteland. But what great kind of fortune or terror will she bring now that she is a convoluted three-in-one? Will she carry the just will of the late Luna? Will she relive the fury that had once belonged to the infamous Nightmare Moon? Or is she just another wretched wasteland pony waiting for her appointed time to come? If she is even sane enough to see it coming...
[end]
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Ruff idea is ruff. (you can't build a tree without BARK, hahaha! ok, I'll be quiet now.) I plan to write this fic in the third person. And I also have 3 other main characters that will tag along for this typhoon of an adventure. More on them (and many other details) will be posted in the days ahead!
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What are your thoughts? Does this sound interesting enough to read? I hope so.
It's not like there are hundreds of sidefics that you could be reading right now.* * *