Prologue - Luna Hates History Movies
Nighttime was good for many things. Catching up on reading, watching old home movies or the new blockbuster films that came out from Fillywood, or perhaps tangling between the sheets with lovers.
Luna spent most of her nights trying to catch up with the new culture that she’d been dropped into. While she had picked up looking after her subjects’ dreams, she’d only taken up the mantle of a few things since being reinstated as a ruler of Equestria. It seemed to fit, and overall Luna found herself pulled to learning what the night had become in her absence.
That did not however, change her temper.
“It makes me so angry Tia,” Luna grumbled over her dinner and Celestia’s breakfast. “The cavern skirmishes with the Diamond Dogs weren’t because they were eating ponies. They simply smelled the gems in the palace, and their warriors weren’t big buffoons; they were crafty and Equestrian language is hard for them to speak.”
Celestia nodded calmly, only half-listening to Luna’s rant. It seemed that any type of historical fiction publication got on Luna’s nerves, especially when it happened before her time of absence. She was still in her war mindset, something that wasn’t needed for many years. While both Luna and Celestia could and would fight they treated things differently. Luna preferred a direct approach and Celestia preferred a safer approach. Many times Luna’s strikes in wars had won them the safety of contested areas, but just as often, before Celestia had banished Luna to the moon diplomacy had been their saving grace.
“And their portrayal of me, caring only about a breach in security and not the foals is entirely and utterly wrong. I love foals,” Luna continued to rant as a guard came in and whispered something in Celestia’s ear about Prince Blueblood demanding to see her immediately over some gripe that the nobles had. This time was about how their taxes were too high.
“Perhaps I should make a history documentary,” Luna announced, drawing Celestia’s attention away from the guard.
“Come again?” Celestia asked, wondering what on earth Luna was going on about. Last she heard Luna was talking about diamond dogs and foals.
“A documentary. One that covers the complete history of Equestria, like back when I used to make constellations to denote important events,” Luna spoke rapidly, picking up a napkin and franticly drawing on it with a quill. “One where everything is accurate, and entertaining. Something to get rid of those Fillywood poisons,” Luna’s quill was moving back and forth rapidly drawing out a timeline in Luna’s own brand of artistic work, minimalistic with dots to show ends of lines. Little notes were made as Luna grabbed Celestia’s napkin and continued to work as her mouth continued to form names of ponies, events, and time periods in rapid succession.
Celestia stared at her sister. It had been over a millennia that she’d seen Luna work herself into this state. This state of wonder typically seen before a battle, when she was working on a constellation or an incredibly beautiful night. The sight of Luna's excitement warmed Celestia’s heart to see.
“And we can include the rise and fall of Nightmare Moon.” Luna stopped frowning. She was already at the back of both napkins, and Nightmare Moon was still a sore spot for Luna. She slumped forwards, and her wings, which had been extended and stiff, folded to her sides. Celestia looked away. The rise of Nightmare Moon, the real rise and all of the factors, did not paint either one of them in a good light.
If Luna had suggested it back when Nightmare Moon had become a thing Celestia would have forbade it, and told her sister not to think of the issue. ‘If I have learned anything...’ Celestia thought before she spoke. “I think that would be wonderful Luna,” she said slowly and carefully. Measuring her tone and voice. Luna looked up in confusion and surprise. “History has been neglected. You’re a much better artist than I could ever be. Perhaps seeing history laid out from your perspective would be helpful. What better than a pony who was there for most of it, and who has access to the archives for what she missed?”
Luna stood up suddenly, a fire burning in her eyes, “Well then we- I best not tarry.” Luna stated grabbing her napkins, as well as a few more. “I’ll retire to the library for a couple of hours, mapping out what I need.” She trotted calmly out of the room, the door closing softly behind her before the sound of galloping hooves could be heard thundering through halls. Celestia let out a small chuckle. Luna always seemed to forget she had wings when she got like this.
The guard simply raised his eyebrow at the odd behavior, but said nothing. Being a guard meant you saw strange things all the time, though seeing the princess of the night acting like a school age filly was a new one to him. “Tell Blueblood I’ll see him tonight at dinner,” he snapped into position as Celestia began to speak. “I have a few ponies to locate.”
Celestia strode from the room leaving half of her breakfast uneaten. If Luna wanted to do this then she would need books and historical documents. While many were kept in the Canterlot archives, many first person recounts were in places their owners lived. And of course Twilight was borrowing books as usual; she needed to double check she wasn’t reading books that Luna might need.
~~~~
Two months had passed since Luna had made the decision to make her own documentary, and she was struggling. Books filled her tower, some open, most closed. A book filled with minimalistic timelines floated in the air as she wrote on paper before she tossed each piece away. “Confound it words, why do you evade me?” Luna shouted. She used to be a great partaker of the arts but it seemed that not only was she out of practice but when she thought she’d made headway she had read aloud to the two guards outside her door, causing them to collapse into a fit of giggles.
A familiar bum-daba-bum-bum came from the door. “Luna,” Celestia called.
Luna turned her head, her mane spreading out over everything in a thin blue cloud. “Come in.” Luna turned back to the page, scribbling out a few more lines before she crumpled the paper. “Buck it all.” She tossed the paper over her shoulder and onto Celestia’s horn. She continued to mutter under her breath as her sister glanced at the messed up room.
“Luna, it’s almost time to raise the moon,” Celestia reminded her as she pulled the paper off her horn and read the sentence on the paper.
“Alright Tia,” Luna sighed, stretching and cracking her joints. “Then I can get back to this… Perhaps the night will help me find the stride I need.”
Celestia blinked. “Perhaps what you need is a rest Luna. Let’s go and watch the moon rise, and then take a night out on the town. There’s a play in Cloudsdale tonight; if we fly quickly we can don our disguises and watch.”
“Tia,” Luna groaned, “I really want to get this done.” Luna carefully picked her way through the room around the paper wads, books, and broken quills. “I feel like I’m on the edge of a breakthrough and if I stop working I’ll miss it.”
“Luna, you’re overstressing yourself,” Celestia told the younger alicorn with a nuzzle before she led her out the door on the far side of the room to Luna’s balcony. “Besides, inspiration sometimes strikes when you’re not looking for it.”
“Are you quoting Brushed Painting at me?” Luna asked as she turned towards the east.
“You always did say you liked her work,” Celestia replied, without directly answering the question. Luna’s horn began to glow as she slowly nudged the moon up, the bright of day being replaced with a deep blue. The moon was full tonight, and seemed to glow with a light of its own. Luna hung the stars methodically as she set the moon on its course. This night was not one of Luna’s masterpieces but it was beautiful just the same. “Is there anything I can do to convince you to come?” she asked softly as Luna smiled at the moon.
“I guess so, I mean it’s not like I haven’t been trying.” Luna glanced at her room and winced. “Just let me clean up first.”
“Nonsense, Luna. You can do that later,” Celestia told her, shutting the door and locking it. “What say we put on the pegasus disguises and hightail it to Cloudsdale?”
Luna groaned and made a few faces, hemming and hawing at leaving her room a disaster area. “Okay I guess,” she conceded.
Celestia smiled as a soft white light enveloped her. In a moment she was replaced by a small white-coated mare with a sun on her flank and a pink mane and tail. “Just call me Shining Radiance,” Celestia mocked, acting like one of the snooty nobles.
Luna let out a giggle gazing at her sister’s disguise. “Just like old times then?” Luna asked as a soft blue glow enveloped her as well. In her place was a dark blue pegasus mare with a moon with a star shadow over half of it on her flank, “My name is Lunar Star,” Luna deepened her voice as she spoke.
“I don’t think I’ve seen that one, what happened to using Chrome Aurora?” Celestia asked as she climbed up onto the edge of the balcony.
“She was a more wartime identity,” Luna responded, testing out her wings and slowly beginning to hover. “I’m feeling more artistically inclined.”
Celestia nodded before glancing at the sky, “Cloudsdale should be towards the south by about two degrees east. We’ll have the wind at our backs, making for an easy flight.” She pushed off, leading Luna into the night hoping that the play would be just the thing to get her mind off her creative muse not being cooperative.
~~
The play was held at a small community building used mostly for get togethers by the residences. The play was about the Diamond Dog wars after Luna and Celestia had risen to the thrones, but there was something interesting about it. First of all it was crazily accurate. The mare playing her part, though she was rarely on stage, argued and lead ponies into the tunnels to save ponies, especially foals who had been taken hostage.
The second thing was it remained historically accurate while portraying a love story. The plot was reminiscent of The Pony and the Monster. The main characters were a mare who was taken hostage trying to defend the orphans, and the oldest prince of the Diamond Dogs. The play had him teach her the Diamond Dog tongue, and slowly she and the orphans had been let out of their cells, beginning to understand why they went to war with the ponies. Jewels were valuable commodities; why should the ponies get the richest grounds?
At the end a great fight scene was acted out on the stage where she herself killed both the king and the prince. The foals were rescued, and the younger prince calling out for surrender, leading his people further away from the place they tried to carve out as a home. The play ended with the suicide of the pony who had fallen in love with the prince. Luna let a tear fall from her eye. It was so beautiful, entertaining, and historically accurate, even with the addition of the love story.
Ponies stamped their hooves as the curtains closed, only to open again to let the pegasi actors take turns bowing on stage, before the director and script writer, a gray pony with yellow mane and tail and a reel of film for a cutie mark, took a bow. Luna’s ears perked. His name was Film Reel, and to have written and directed such a masterpiece...her thoughts began to spin. She had an idea: this pony was the answer to her problems.
~~
Film Reel was sitting at his desk in his house, half moon spectacles perched on his nose. He rattled off numbers before rubbing his temples. “Viola?” He called out.
“Yes?” a mare’s musical voice called up to him.
“Can you put some music on? I can’t seem to come up with inspiration, and I really need something before it gets too busy in the biz to focus.” Film Reel was a simple camera pony who loved writing scripts and planning out movies. Some would say that he was the best camera pony in the business. Had a difficult shot to film? Something really emotional that you needed to get just right? A battle that had to be filmed on the run? He was your pony. However, being a camera pony did not pay much.
He heard some shuffling downstairs as his wife grabbed her score sheets. Soon the sound of a viola filled the small cloud home. He smiled sadly. Viola was a score writer, but had yet to hit it big with her music in films. When she was having a particular tricky time working through a demo to show off what she could write and do, she turned to her trusty viola. Other times she’d sit at their small secondhand out of tune piano, or she’d grab out a guitar and strum through the chords with her wings.
He continued outlining. A Romeo and Juliet type of story taking place in the outline. He frowned. Borrowing from foals’ fairy tales was fine, but borrowing from Shakes Pony was a no-no in the biz. Far too over done. He crumpled the paper and tossed it expertly into the trashcan by the door. He picked up another piece and started outlining again. A mare who grew up never getting her cutie mark, perhaps searching for love but viewed as a freak. He continued. Perhaps this would be the script that would land him into the director’s or script writer’s chair.
There was a knock at the door. He heard Viola stop playing. He sighed and continued his work. Her music always gave him his best ideas; without it the outline would probably suffer. Well, that was what editing was for. He heard talk down stairs before “Film! There’s a pony here for you,” Viola’s musical voice called up.
“Send them up, darling,” Film replied, fighting back the frustration from being interrupted during their most creative time.
When the pony walked into his office he didn’t look up; he was far too focused on his work, “Just hold on a second I’ll get to you,” he stated trying to round off the last part of act one.
“IS THIS HOW THOU TREATS GUESTS?” The pony demanded in a loud voice, startling him from his work. His head shot up to find that he was staring at none other than Princess Luna.
Author's Note
Okay I'm not new to fanfiction writing. I am new to writing ponies so all crit is welcomed. Note flames will be used to roast veggies because roasted veggies are tasty.
Ponies Don't Break Into Song
Ch. 1 Ponies Don’t Just Break Into Song
Film Reel was still unsure how it had happened. One moment he was being yelled at by Princess Luna, the next he was being whisked away to Canterlot to help her produce a documentary. If that wasn’t the craziest thing, she wanted the documentary to cover the entire history of Equestria. His mind was working in overdrive. So many ponies whose stories he could tell, so much of history he could fix.
Film Reel didn’t look it but he was a history buff. When he was a foal he thought he was going to be a historian, but no matter how hard he studied and acted in reenactments, it wasn’t until he tried to make a film for his history class that he got his cutie mark. Sure he knew he was good with a camera; he used it to track his movements so he could better act at reenactments, and to videotape the places his parents took him to fuel his passion.
Still, a chance to work with history again in a professional setting was a dream come true. However, the hours weren’t the best. Luna could remain up all day but even the alicorn liked her sleep. During the day. Film Reel admitted that at least the guest room made it easy to sleep; it was just odd to work during the night.
“Ah, Film Reel,” Luna addressed him as he entered the room after she rose the moon. They typically talked briefly over what section of history Luna wanted to cover that night and flesh out an outline, right before dinner/breakfast with Celestia. “Have you thought more on the Griffon wars? Those will be especially messy to work through.”
“I have, Princess,” Film Reel stated slowly. “I think there is really only one way to handle it, and that will be to cover both sets of history at once. Include the Griffons and what happened before they attacked Equestria. It will mean adding time onto the documentary, but if you make it a multi-night production, something that ponies would see in class, or as part of huge cultural excursions then running time becomes less of a problem.”
“Why all this focus on running time, Film Reel? As long as we do not bore the audience it should be no problem, correct?” Luna said as if it were fact and gently pulled a brush through her nebula mane.
“I-it’s not that simple, Princess,” Film Reel stated as he crouched down. “On top of having a compelling story a movie has to have drama, action, and romance–not necessarily the romantic kind-to have even a shadow of a doubt to compete with the Fillywood productions.” Luna scoffed as he stated the dreaded name of the movie production hub of Equestria. “And even then you need talent working the cameras, the make up, the music...I GOT IT!” he shouted, leaping into the air, a sudden stroke of genius hitting him.
Luna suddenly yanked the brush through her mane and stared at the pegasus pony. “What hast thou got?”
“I got how we can make it a cultural explosion! All we have to do is get the outline done, then bring in the music. We’ll display it as a musical.” His wings flapped harder as he zipped into Luna’s face. “Think about it! Several important leaders of Equestria framed by song!” He zipped to the other side of the room and grabbed a book about the Griffon Wars. “Imagine General Gwain singing to his brother King Gaston the benefits of honor over taking a village of defenseless ponies while in the middle of prosperity! Imagine all the musical lyrics… if done right this could be GOLD!”
Luna burst into laughter at the pony’s antics. “My little pony,” she stated, trying out her sister’s phrase, “Griffons and ponies don’t just break into song.”
Film Reel ignored her, jumping up with a tune leaving his lips. “Oh, His-tor-y, what you do to me,” he said, flipping through a book at random. “So many stories waiting to be told.” He flew upside down, tossing the book and only narrowly missing Luna’s head. “And there’s always opportunity, to tell the story right!”
Luna stared in disbelief as he proceeded to grab a much heavier book and flip through it nonchalantly. “If the story’s been told, pay no mind,” he said, pointing his hoof to a picture of a diamond dog. “Kick it up a notch, while keeping the story true!” He shut the book and flew back into Luna’s personal space. “Lo and behold, you may just find, that the story you struck is gold!”
“I feel like this is just an attempt to make me change my mind,” Luna stated with a frown at his antics.
“Well, maybe it is!” he said with a big smile as he rolled on his back in the air.
“It’s not helping.” Luna rolled her eyes.
“Maybe not yet but it will!” He dashed to the top of the tallest pile of books. “His-tor-y-y, I’m here to prove that I can do what you need, His-tor-y-y, we’ll set a new bar!” He flew around the pile before pulling out a diary written by Smart Cookie.
“Careful!” Luna called up to him. The other books had been more modern but Smart Cookie’s diary was not as young.
“Oh, I will be! I won’t let a treasure like this fall.” He started flipping to the middle of the diary.
“You’re not changing my mind this way.” Luna frowned.
“Oh? Then maybe I just need to try harder,” he stated, flying down and placing the diary on Luna’s desk, a much safer place. “Some may say: Film, what’s the big deal? It’s just a bunch of dusty books.” He zoomed over to Luna’s timeline. “But I stand to think, that for each event there is something we could learn.”
“And this is how I play my cards,” he gestured boldly. “By using what history has given me, it’s rich with drama, and only needs the right touch.”
“Oh no, what have I done? It seems thou hast caught my madness,” Luna sang with a facehoof.
“It’s no madness, Princess, just the love for the past,” Film quipped, making a few small notes.
“History, I’m here to show what I can do,” Film jumped back into the air with his eyes closed. “History, you are my key, History-y, I’m here to tell your story, your story!” He finished on a high note before dropping to the ground, extending a wing before him and lightly preening it.
“You still haven’t changed my mind.” Luna strode to the far side of the room, certain the pegasus’ song was finished.
“Oh, but I will.” He trotted over to her as she left the room, walking down the grand hallways to the dining room. “It’s too perfect. It will call to all those in Equestria, and besides the Element of Laughter used a song that we can’t just ignore.”
“It’s supposed to feel out of place,” Luna said, rolling her eyes. “She was giggling at the trees.”
“So? You also said that you had a mentor who sang to you and Celestia. If songs are only at the beginning and at the end it would really feel out of place, especially since they aren’t like each other at all,” Film Reel replied with a smug smile.
“And you’re basing your whole thought that this needs to be a musical on two songs?” Luna mused as they finally came into the dining room. Celestia was already sitting at the table with her nephew next to her. Blueblood was griping about something or other again; really, the more time Film Reel spent in here with the Princesses he felt the most of the more vocal nobles were not as impressive as most ponies believed. They seemed to feel more concern over impressions and money.
As Luna took her seat Celestia turned her head. “How did you sleep, Luna? And good evening to you too, Film Reel.”
“I slept fine, Celestia,” Luna stated as she sat down at her place at the table. Film Reel followed with a simple nod. While he’d grown used to talking with Luna, Celestia was a another story. Luna had only been back from the moon for a few years, while Celestia had been ruling the kingdom for his entire life.
Luna turned her attention to affairs of the state, asking Celestia if there had been any word from the Griffon kingdom on the search for the Changeling hive. There had been no hint as to where the hive was, and Celestia and Luna had been extending their range outside of Equestria, though only the warlike griffons had offered government support in the search inside their mountain home.
Blueblood simply grumbled that the money being used to find the hive would be better spent on ensuring tax breaks. Film Reel rolled his eyes when he was sure the white unicorn wasn’t looking. He was focused on the food in front of him. The idea of turning the documentary into a musical was still playing through his mind.
Otherwise, breakfast was uneventful and as it concluded Luna went to check in with her guard. While Luna was technically supposed to hold court there were no nobles who sat in her court, nor were there ever many practitioners. Typically Luna would go through the ceremony of opening, sitting on her throne a few hours looking over what Celestia did during the day and making official recommendations before going off to her room to work on the documentary.
Film Reel found all this work boring, and spent his time working on the outline or bits of script. The more he worked the more he became convinced he was right. There were so many intricacies that really a song could display them in a way mere words couldn't.
Film Reel hummed as he began to edit the tale of Hearth's Warming Eve with the notes that Smart Cookie had stated in her diary. Luna had gotten permission for Celestia to use or edit the lines as they saw fit for the documentary, and it was the easiest thing to work on since it was already pretty accurate.
He missed his wife’s music; it could make the work go so much faster, especially editing work. Film Reel stopped and snapped his head up. Luna was against the musical idea because she couldn’t see everypony just jumping into song; what if she actually heard tunes that would be similar? Film grabbed a blank sheet of paper and began scribbling on it very quickly. As soon as his note was finished he folded it up and handed it off to one of Luna’s bat-winged guards, “Take this to Cloudsdale, house five on Rain Avenue.” He urgently whispered to the guard so as to not distract Luna from her talk with one of her advisors.
The guard simply nodded and walked calmly from the room as Film had to hold in giggles. Oh yes, Luna would come around.
Author's Note
Sorry it took so long but I got swept up in fair and school work.
