The consequences of losing somepony that she truly loved.
The Death of Princess Luna
is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic by GigaBowserNS.
After a fight between royal sisters Luna and Celestia, Luna is unexpectedly and tragically killed during an ambush in Canterlot, leaving Celestia devastated. When the rest of Equestria receives the news of Luna's passing, a collective trauma spreads throughout the kingdom given that Luna had recently been saved from her imprisonment as Nightmare Moon.
At least, that's how it seems....
A month after Luna's funeral, Twilight Sparkle discovers that Luna's death was a hoax, evidenced by an incident at a graveyard where Luna's tomb was discovered to not contain her corpse. The Mane Six realize that Luna must still be alive, but her whereabouts are unknown. Fearing for Luna's life, the Mane Six and Spike go out to find her in the Everfree Forest.
Meanwhile, an imprisoned Luna suffers from hunger, fright, and hopelessness, discovering a terrifying secret about her captors and their intentions.
This My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Fan Fic provides examples of:
- An Aesop: In the last chapter, Twilight sends Celestia one of her letters about what she's learned about friendship."I learned the value of never giving up, as well as the importance of pursing the truth. If your gut tells you that something's wrong with the way things are presented to you, then you should definitely do your best to investigate it. It's never a good idea to jump to conclusions, but you should always give your hunches a chance.
I also learned that sometimes your friends won't share your views or ideas. Sometimes they'll disagree with what you think and often aren't shy about voicing their opinion. However, I've learned that a true friend will give you the benefit of the doubt and help you seek out the answers you're looking for. After all she did to help me out, I know that if Applejack ever has a hunch and needs my help, I'll be there to do my best, even if I don't agree with what she's saying." - Alternate Universe: Even if it wasn't the case at first, it is now. The fic was published back in 2012, presumably after "Luna Eclipsed", as Luna's first Nightmare Night is mentioned in passing, but before "A Canterlot Wedding", considering that Cadance seems not to exist, and the official COnote of the Royal Guard is named Navy Shield, and he's not a captain. Also, the story is set about one year after Luna's return, but Twilight is still a unicorn.
- Anger Born of Worry: Played with. Celestia gives into this during her argument with Luna in chapter 1, then spends most of the story beating herself up over it. However, she doesn't seem to feel this towards the Mane Six after her Big Damn Heroes moment, even though she had perfectly good reasons to be upset about her prized student secretly endangering herself and her friends for the sake of investigating a crazy-sounding hunch, as well as about her little sister getting herself abducted and almost killed because of recklessness.
- Apologizes a Lot: Fluttershy. Whether it's about showing her emotions after Luna's death, or about tripping and ultimately getting hurt by accident, she will say "I'm sorry". At one point she even apologizes for having just apologized.
- Big Bad: Navy Shield acts as the leader of a group of four ponies dedicated to ensure Nightmare Moon can never threaten Equestria again by killing Princess Luna.
- Big Damn Heroes: Celestia becomes one for the Mane Six (and Spike), who in turn are those for Princess Luna after she's found by the Mane Six.
- Bunker Woman: Luna's imprisoned in an abandoned underground cell block situated beneath a remote house. She can't escape because of a power limiter on her horn.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The sole reason the conspirators postpone Luna's murder for the next new moon is because they believe that only then "Nightmare Moon" can be killed permanently.
- Cassandra Truth: Not long after Luna's funeral, we hear about an incident with a pony bursting into the Royal Court and yelling things like "she's alive". After a while of unsuccessfully trying to get anything else out of him, Celestia eventually has him thrown out. Of course, in the end, he turns out to have been right.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- In chapter 1, it's said that it takes a lot to kill an alicorn.
- Twilight staring at Luna's coffin during the funeral for later discovery that it wasn't her.
- While crying in her cell, Luna takes out a scroll from under her cell bed. This scroll was one of many sent by Spike, and would lead to Twilight and her friends finding the house Luna is held in.
- Death Faked for You: Luna's kidnappers fool everypony to think that she was killed by some forest creature by disguising a deceased mare's body as Luna's with a concealment spell.
- Despair Event Horizon: Almost everypony suffers this after Luna is apparently killed, especially Celestia. Her mane turns gray, stops naturally waving, and her mood turns very sour. This lasts until Luna is rescued from the conspirators.
- Disney Death: Near the end of the story, Navy Shield shoots Luna and almost kills her. The Mane Six thinks she's really dead, but she survives.
- Downer Beginning: Luna is apparently killed, sending all of Equestria in mourning, especially Celestia. The funeral is very somber, and Celestia crosses the Despair Event Horizon. It's only when Twilight begins Pulling the Thread that things start to pick up.
- Due to the Dead: There's a grand state funeral held for Luna after she supposedly dies.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Despite undergoing a living hell, Luna ultimately escapes her captors with the help of the Mane Six.
- Evil Plan: The conspirators have one. Fake the death of Princess Luna, kill her at the correct time, and put an end to Nightmare Moon once and for all.
- Expressive Hair:
- Celestia's mane and tail turn grayscale, going limp and sweeping like fabric.
- Pinkie Pie's mane and tail deflating again upon hearing of Luna's "death".
- Gasp!: Celestia after The Big Bad attempts to assassinate Luna by shooting her.
- Gray Rain of Depression: The first three chapters have the setting drenched in gray rain.
- He Who Fights Monsters: The villains are utterly insane ponies who believe their gambit — destroying Nightmare Moon with a ritual under the full moon — is a righteous crusade. This is how they justify capturing Luna, covering her disappearance with a cadaver of somepony else (whose death they may or may not have had a part in), and keeping her imprisoned in isolation and hunger just to eventually sacrifice her. The one they believe they're up against wasn't shown sinking to such depths in canon. A special mention goes to Navy Shield, who nearly kills Luna.
- Heroic BSoD: Celestia's reaction and breakdown after hearing of Luna's death. Things only get worse when the news spread to Twilight and her friends. Fluttershy's reaction is similar to Celestia's.
- Insane Troll Logic: Sums up the motivation of the kidnappers. According to an ancient tome that no one had ever heard of and which was written after the duel between Celestia and Nightmare Moon, Luna is long dead and her body is controlled by Nightmare Moon. To prevent Nightmare Moon from body surfing, she needed to be knifed during a full moon.
- Knight Templar: The bad guys believe that Luna is dead and irreversibly Nightmare Moon, and no argument can dissipate their delusion that killing her will end the threat of Nightmare Moon over everypony once and for all.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Once the conspirators are arrested, Comet Tail is the only one who agrees to confess everything, identifying his co-conspirators and the entire plan. He still goes to jail, but gets 25 years. Sunny Ray and High Noon get 45 years each, and Navy Shield gets life without parole.
- Lethal Chef: Apparently, none of the bad guys can cook anything else than some sloshy substance that doesn't even remotely resemble food. That, or they just really didn't care if their prisoner lived or not, even though her death of starvation would've ruined their entire plan.
- Loud Gulp: Done by Navy Shield when a furious Celestia catches him fighting Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie into submission, and demands he explain himself.
- The Mole: Navy Shield, Comet Tail, Sunny Ray, and High Noon. They only think they're doing right when it comes to killing Luna.
- Near-Death Experience: After a heartwarming scene towards the end of the story, Navy Shield quickly gets up, gallops directly at Luna, pulls out a pistol and fires, almost killing her. What makes matters even worse is that Luna is in a severely emaciated state as she stayed in her prison cell, being fed only an odd, soapy substance that doesn't even look, taste, or feel like food.
- The Needs of the Many: Deconstructed. Celestia puts everyone else's needs far ahead of her own need to properly mourn, resulting in her Despair Event Horizon getting worse.
- Nothing Can Stop Us Now!: The head of the conspiracy goes into this when four of the Mane Six are subdued. Much to everypony's surprise, Pinkie starts laughing at his confidence and points out that Celestia has arrived, and she's pissed off.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Rarity during her We Need a Distraction scene. The conspirators remark that she seems like she has a single-digit IQ.
- Overused Running Gag: The rest of the Mane Six ask Fluttershy if she's doing okay quite a lot. Fluttershy eventually gets rather annoyed.
- Parting-Words Regret: Celestia feels very remorseful of quarreling with Luna before her "death".
- Power Nullifier: The kidnappers make Luna unable to use her magic by encasing her horn in a metallic disc used to contain unicorn convicts.
- Properly Paranoid: It's revealed that ever since Luna's return, Celestia has insisted that her little sister is to be accompanied by somepony while traveling outside the castle, fearing that some extremist who hasn't forgotten Nightmare Moon's legacy would try to attack Luna. Luna's kidnappers turn out to be this exactly, successfully kidnapping her and keeping her contained for a month when she disregards Celestia's instructions by flying alone. They'd have succeeded in killing her if not for the Mane Six and Spike.
- Prophecies Are Always Right: Subverted. There is a prophecy in the story, but the fic makes it clear that the tome used by the conspiracy to justify trying to kill Princess Luna the way they do is a bunch of hogwash.
- Rewind, Replay, Repeat: Twilight Sparkle spends the better part of a few weeks reanalyzing the footage of Luna's funeral over and over, with a nagging feeling that something is off.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Interestingly, the bad guys. They believe Luna is already long since dead and Nightmare Moon took her place; and they refuse to be convinced otherwise. Yet, killing Luna would have prevented Nightmare Moon from ever returning... because the one who could possibly turn back into her would be dead.
- Smug Snake: The bad guys have planned Luna's kidnapping and imprisonment with great caution. But weeks of not getting busted make them smug, way too confident of their success and all too willing to flaunt it in Luna's face. This also makes them unprepared when they catch the Mane Six in their hideout, and are caught up fighting them by Celestia herself, who holds them down easily with her power.
- So Proud of You: Princess Celestia expresses this about the Mane Six and Spike to Luna when they are in the hospital after the latter's rescue and attempted assassination.
- Spanner in the Works:
- Twilight discovering that Luna's tomb contains a body that is definitely not Luna's is what begins the investigation into her disappearance.
- Spike ends up being this for the four conspirators, despite never coming directly into contact with them — by sending a scroll to Celestia saying that Twilight is calling for help. The moment Celestia shows up at the hideout of the conspiracy, Navy Shield knows they're finished.
- Tears of Joy: Plenty of these are shed in the last chapters. First, when Twilight and Fluttershy find Luna. Second, when Luna and Celestia are reunited. And mostly, when Luna wakes up in the hospital.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Luna ignored Celestia's advice and snuck out all alone in the middle of the night, thinking that "anything that would try to harm her would be no match for her magic". Clearly, the possibility of being outnumbered or taken by surprise never entered her mind until it was too late.
- In the penultimate chapter, the Big Bad makes one last desperate move that's pretty dumb. Navy Shield shoots Luna, desperate to kill her before the end of the full moon. Luna survives the gunshot, and it gets all four conspirators charges for attempted murder. Navy Shield himself gets the worst punishment: he's stripped of his titles and rank, arrested on the spot, and gets life in prison.
- Was Too Hard on Him: Following her argument with Luna about the restrictions imposed for her safety, Celestia is left feeling this way, and it makes her Despair Event Horizon about Luna's supposed death all the worse.
- We Need a Distraction: Rarity stalls the conspirators by pretending to be lost, allowing the others to sneak inside their lair.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Luna is kidnapped by Comet Tail pretending to be wounded and her getting knocked out when she inspects him.
