Friday, July 1, 2011

Story: Moon Diary


[Grimdark][Normal]

Author: Purple Prose
Description: A thousand-year-old document has been successfully translated by a scholar at the Royal University of Equestria. However, the document has not been authorized for publication to the general public, and with good reason. With permission from Her Royal Highness, the document is now presented, in translation with notes, to this site.
Moon Diary

Additional Tags: Fictional Document, Diary, Luna, Origin, Madness

46 comments:

Narwhals' Bend said...

Equestria Daily > general public

Acriaos said...

doesn't really classify as grimdark in my opinion, but well done. How many Origin stories of Nightmare Moon are there by now?

Whiteout said...

Well, that creeped me right the heck out.

Anonymous said...

wow
nice story
also is ponychan down?
it is for me :/

MihailK said...

Intrigue!
GRAMMAR TYPO DAMMIT!

Anonymous said...

I liked it a lot except for a few spelling and grammar errors.

krypqe said...

Complete?!
;_;

Ah well, I enjoyed it!

Anonymous said...

Shit dude, thats creepy :\

I enjoyed the crap out of that, its kinda odd though, who did put the poisonous flowers in her meal? who tried to kill her? I hope we all get to find out.

Anonymous said...

Diaries make excellent framing devices, don't they? It's an easy way to get inside the head of the protagonist and really understand their feelings, and it's usually quite effective. The peppering of translator's notes made the diary seem more like a credible historical document than just some random diary Luna kept laying around one day.

As far as content, this is an interesting interpretation of Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon. The idea of Luna not willingly submitting to NM isn't one that I see explored often. Very intriguing. And aside from the typos (which may or may not be purposeful), it was well written and an interesting read. Nice work!

Warhorse said...

Wow, that's just...wow. That's a new twist on the whole multiple personalities complex, as emphasized through Luna's journal. Bravo.

Anonymous said...

*Insert Spikes "Dude, that's creepy!" quote*

Seriously...

Anonymous said...

that was cool! i think that the one who poisoned her was....herself...

Blackylove123 said...

woah that was completely awesome! I loved it! GREAT job on everything. Obviously no one wanted to poison her, it was Nightmare Moon/herself. as Anonymous said :)

REALLY interesting. five stars!!

Stephen Cawking said...

Awesome is right!

Not my favorite interpretation of NMM but really well executed.

ShoobieDoo said...

I absolutely LOVE this! And I sort of hate diary stories, too. It seemed undoubtable real. One of my favorites on the sight thus far!

Midnight said...

short'n'creepy. liked it a lot.

Grif said...

Good read. Just about the right amount of insane mixed into it.

Emzi said...

Niiiiiice. So wonderfully creepy. I almost wish I'd read it at night.

I loved the translator's notes. It was so believable...the whole thing was believable, actually.

Amazing interpretation. This is now officially how Nightmare Moon came to be, in my book. Five stars, ol' chap.

TenchiFreak5 said...

As soon as I read how the last entry was formatted in comparison to the others, my blood went ice cold. Creepy as all hell, but perfectly carried.

Anonymous said...

A good read.
I have a Datura Inoxia in my garden.They are very beautiful flower.
I always thought Luna would have liked them :)

Saddlesoap said...

Eerie atmosphere, and nice academic formatting - reminiscent of multilayered narratives like House of Leaves.

I felt like using the binomial nomenclature for the datura every time lessened the emotional impact a bit - imagine Red Riding Hood writing about still fearing the Canis Lupus Maleficarius! Otherwise, it makes for a great read.



Considering the massive flood of bookish, aloof Lunas we have all created, it will be severely jarring if Season Two has her be cute and fun-loving or the like...

Anonymous said...

Excellent story beautifully written and CREEPY AS HELL.

Anonymous said...

Trapped alone, for 1,000 years. With that as your only company.
Chilling.

umax333 said...

Hey guys, I had an idea and I was wondering if everypony would be down for it. Like many of you, I read A LOT of MLP fanfiction, all written by really adept writers.

I'm sure most of you have heard of audiobooks, as well. While I don't listen to them very often, it's good to have them on my iPod when, say, I'm in the car.

If everypony thinks it would be a good idea, we could have a group of enthusiastic readers recite and record some of our favourite fanfictions and then have them posted online.

What do you guys think :P ?

H{Y}P3|2 C|_|BE said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

"Trapped alone, for 1,000 years. With that as your only company.
Chilling."
I agree. I would love to see Luna after the whole NM transformation of the first episodes and returning back to her home. Would she be unstable? Would she have relapses of NM? After 1000 years, how does she think now and how have her morals changed? Does she still see NM as an enemy, or closer to a twisted friend?
There are a lot of possibilities, and I found this to be an amazing read. It was delivered very well, and the translators notes gave it such a realistic touch. The amount of madness was just right, though it personally didn't creep me out. I saw it more as something that really could have happened.
Loved it!

Anonymous said...

You would need very clear readers to do it. If the readers aren't very talented at, well, reading, it could ruin the whole fiction. Great idea, though!

Wandering Sol said...

Woah...

Anypony else reminded of BEN?

Anonymous said...

So...NM was the result of brain damage caused by magical moonflower poison? I like the story, but I'm not entirely sure where it has her come from.

mykowskis said...

Very eerie.
I like how the appearance of NM and Luna's steadily approaching realization slowly crept into the text, and not just thrown in completely.
Awesome sauce.

Anonymous said...

Don't know how fitting that is, but it was a fun read.

Zogger568 said...

Kinda reminds me of the text in The Shining. Creepy. This needs to be inan episode.

Rated-R PonyStar said...

Creepy, but good.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely BRILLIANT! what a twist on Nightmare Moon's origins.... she wasn't possessed, she wasn't insane--- she was accidentally POISONED. And the author did their homework, too: the effects of Datura Inoxia (or MOONFLOWER) are accurately described, and DO include light sensitivity, madness, delirium, and bizarre and violent behavior.

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous
Hey, thanks; this bit of botanical knowledge makes the story both easier to understand and more awesome.

Purple Prose said...

Author here. I have to admit, I really should have switched to a more common idiom for the Inoxia. It doesn't really flow well, but might make sense in the contect of Luna being a bit of a nerd.

I wanted to do something psychological, not to mention playing with the text formatting. The truth behind what happened is up to all of you, though. <3

drewdle said...

Fantastic headtrip. Thanks for the ride.

Anonymous said...

I don't truly understand the grimdark part, for me this is more Sadfic, to watch, or read Luna sink into madness

Shellsh0cker said...

Oh, sweet Celestia and Luna.

Reading this at 2:30 AM was a REALLY BAD IDEA.

reynard61 said...

@Zogger568

"All work and no attention makes Luna a jealous Nightmare Moon."
"All work and no attention makes Luna a jealous Nightmare Moon."
"All work and no attention makes Luna a jealous Nightmare Moon."
"All work and no attention makes Luna a jealous Nightmare Moon."

ad infinitum...

WTBrony said...

That was awesome. I found myself hearing Nightmare Moon's voice in my head as I read. Creepiness at its best.

Not A Good Username 360 said...

Wow. Short, sweet, and creepy. Very ambiguous, too... was it the poison, or was Luna already mad? Or was it something else entirely?

Although, the "two styles of writing" was a little immersion-breaking. I mean, if she were a part of Luna, why would her handwriting be any different? How could she develop an entirely different handwriting style, even subconsciously?

MAYBE ITS BECAUSE THE OTHER HER WANTS TO ESTABLISH HERSELF AS A DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE INDIVIDUAL?

Mmm... true, true... it'd be a bit like how in EverymanHYBRID when HABIT would take over the twitter and write in all caps while Slenderman wrote in normal text...

EXACTLY.

...wait a minute...

...SOMETHING WRONG?

Anonymous said...

This is a funny story.

Anonymous said...

Took looking through here to figure out what the plants were. The last line makes me wish I had bought the Luna doll so I could hug her and comfort her that she's OK.

Tobias Petrie said...

This story is amazing. It was way better than I expected. Other than a few cliche's that really weren't that misplaced, it was perfect. The way it's done up to look so official, and especially the timing of the story ending. Much shorter than I expected, but in a good way. It really added to the awesomeness the way it was ended off. I have to say, this is the best fanfiction I've ever read.

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