Frigid Winds and Burning Hearts

A My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fanfic.

After a thousand years of being sealed away as the Mare in the Moon, Princess Luna was finally freed -- not just from her prison, but from the jealousy that once blinded her. Nightmare Moon was purged from her body, courtesy of the Elements of Harmony.

One year later, thanks to a careless remark from a self-absorbed 'noble', she learns exactly what her dear Celly has taught the world about her.

Frigid Winds and Burning Hearts is not your typical heartwarming tale of Luna rediscovering her place in the world and the love of her sister and subjects. It is not a story about an Adorkable princess fumbling with all the advancements the world made without her. Nor is it a grimdark tale of a fiery reformer waging war against her tyrannical sister.

And it is certainly not a tale of Luna blindly begging forgiveness and immediately reconciling with her sister.

For Princess Celestia has spent many of those thousand years entrenching a system Luna never approved of -- and reinforcing it with tales painting a quite different account of ancient history than what Luna remembers.

Yet Celestia is not portrayed as an unsympathetic monster, nor is she fully responsible for the main conflict of the story. For her Plan to let her sister be 'redeemed' and reintroduced back into the society she worked so hard on seems to have had its side effects... To make matters worse, after their very public argument, the public seems convinced Luna has reverted to her old, evil ways... including a smug Captain of the Royal Guard eager to prove himself a 'hero' by getting rid of the Nightmare Moon threat once and for all. And even that guy isn't as much of an unsympathetic Jerkass as he first appeared to be...

Maybe.

"Captain Braveheart: Ha, look at the sass in this one! I can't wait to see you break in the ol' torture chamber, collaborator."
 * Adaptation-Induced Plothole: A few by making season 2 canon in the story wend they were clearly not planned in. Namely the fact that Celestia and Luna used the Elements of Harmony to defeat Discord despite Luna stating they can't used them and was shocked to learn Celestia found a way.
 * 0% Approval Rating: Despite her 'redemption', Princess Luna isn't trusted by the public. Prince Blueblood exposes this Elephant in the Living Room after she slights him. Things go downhill from there.
 * The Atoner:
 * Anachronic Order: Chapter 6 jumps back in time to show events that occurred framing Chapter 3 that are focused on a different part of the cast.
 * Annoying Arrows: Averted when Captain Braveheart shoots  with a crossbow.
 * Armies Are Evil: Zig-zag between chapters.
 * Ax Crazy: Ajax towards anyone he perceives as being loyal to Luna/Nightmare Moon, or against Celestia. Which, after about 1000 of stewing about the war, is pretty much everyone but Celestia.
 * Beware the Quiet Ones: Big Macintosh. Although nothing short of  will piss him off, you really don't want to be on the receiving end of his kicks when he is.
 * Big Damn Heroes:
 * Blue Blood: As Luna attempts to reveal to Prince Blueblood and later to Twilight, this concept is.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Played with; Luna acknowledges that her long imprisonment drove her mad, but  didn't help, either.
 * Break the Cutie: Twilight struggles with the idea that her beloved mentor might be a Manipulative Bitch, in no small part because . To make matters worse, in Chapter 4 she reveals.
 * Brought Down to Badass: The Elements of Harmony stripped Luna of some of her powers, most noticably . She is still capable of holding her own.
 * The Bully: Braveheart is more or less one. He insults and attacks others to make himself feel better and abuses his power.
 * Catapult Nightmare: Luna does this after a lengthy nightmare about Celestia becoming openly tyrranical.
 * Children Are Innocent: Applebloom is thrilled to meet Luna, having not yet made the connection between her return and that of Nightmare Moon.
 * Child Soldiers: Lightning Strike was forced into the military academy after his cutie mark appeared. Braveheart was pressed into service as the Captain of the Royal Guard's page for two years and then enrolled in the academy as punishment for entering Celestia's personal chamber unannounced and without permission.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: Braveheart, after the failed attempt to capture Luna and Twilight at Applejack's farm, goes on quite the swearing spree outside Rarity's boutique, waking her up. She promptly goes outside to scold him, only to be ignored at first, then insulted directly when she finally gets his attention.
 * Deadly Decadent Court: Luna has never been a fan of 'nobility', much less the methods her sister used to set up the system in the first place.
 * Democracy Is Bad: Or at least that's Celestia's opinion, though
 * Luna points out the flaw in Celestia's logic in the very first chapter, pointing out a successful democracy does currently exist apparently, one encompassing a nation of griffons. Celestia refuses to realize her sister has a point. It's also stated by Luna herself in a later chapter that Luna seemingly expected a democracy to evolve after
 * Didn't See That Coming: Celestia thought she had it all planned out... But didn't consider the possiblity that the Elements of Harmony might actually have adverse effects on Luna, like . Luna, of course, assumes she was aware and calls her on it.
 * Elephant in the Living Room: Turns out that, contrary to what Celestia hoped, the general public is mostly aware that Princess Luna was the "dreaded Nightmare Moon".
 * Establishing Character Moment: Braveheart's cheerful mockery of Princess Luna and Twilight, leading up to this line:
 * Elephant in the Living Room: Turns out that, contrary to what Celestia hoped, the general public is mostly aware that Princess Luna was the "dreaded Nightmare Moon".
 * Establishing Character Moment: Braveheart's cheerful mockery of Princess Luna and Twilight, leading up to this line:

"Big Mac: Ah don't talk all that much, only when Ah really need to. In fact, I don't think Ah've talked this much in months, but it ain't everyday that a goddess pops up outta nowhere askin' me fer help an'."
 * Evil Gloating: Captain Braveheart, upon catching up with Luna, gleefully taunts her, and Twilight as well.
 * It happens again after  Many see this as the moment that he didn't so much cross as outright jumped over the Moral Event Horizon.
 * Evil Smoking: Captain Braveheart, the callous and snide commander of the Royal Guard, has a cigar dangling "grotesquely" from his mouth, and wastes no time establishing himself as an utter Jerkass.
 * General Ripper: Captain Braveheart hasn't found a problem yet that he can't somehow blame Luna for. He's hell-bent on protecting the citizens of Equestria from her, no matter how many of them he has to hurt to do it.
 * Giant Spider:
 * Gravity Master: Luna
 * Gray and Grey Morality: Neither sister is painted as completely in the wrong... nor completely in the right. Mistakes were made on both ends, and are only exacerbated by Poor Communication Kills.
 * A Lighter Shade of Grey: However, thanks to giving most of the screentime to Luna and having Celestia's side be primarily represented by the Jerkass Captain Braveheart, the story is heavily on Luna's side for most of the duration.
 * Hanlon's Razor: Luna apparently isn't aware of this, assuming that Celestia knew the Elements of Harmony would and was counting on it as part of a plot to get rid of her for good, as opposed to it being a completely unforeseen side-effect that Celly's just as horrified to discover as Luna herself.
 * Captain Braveheart also follows this, assuming anyone who so much as says the wrong word to him must be a traitor and dealt with like a war criminal.
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * The Mane Six sans Twilight attempt this on Ajax,
 * Hobbes Was Right: Princess Celestia is the Leviathan of Thomas Hobbes. Combating the forces of discord requires a strong, centralized government and an unassailable sovereign. This is in stark contrast with her sister's beliefs and is a source of considerable tension between the two.
 * Hypocrite:
 * Justified in that she assumed the general populace would eventually overthrow them and find a better way to govern themselves. Presumably through democracy. She even
 * Informed Attribute: We are told, over and over, that Luna is a creative and innovative leader. We are shown a whining, tantrumy child who spends most of her time sulking and complaining and needs others to do everything for her.
 * The story as a whole being anything other than another Celestia = bad, Luna = good, seems to be one. Made worst by the fact Word of God claims that not only is Celestia is his favorite but the story as a whole is "for her".
 * Insane Troll Logic: Braveheart has a knack for leaping to conclusions. Twilight protests his attacking Luna? Nevermind explaining why, she MUST be a traitor and should be arrested and tortured! Rarity is Twilight's friend? Just because she doesn't have a clue what's going on doesn't mean she's not automatically a traitor, too! Arrest her!
 * Jerkass: Captain Braveheart, a bigoted Smug Snake who believes his position gives him free reign to treat everyone else like utter crap, cheerfully abusing his power and angling to find more glory and recognition.
 * Even he doesn't hold a candle to Prince Blueblood. During their brief encounter in part 8, Braveheart ends up hating Blueblood more than he does Luna.
 * Knight of Cerebus: Braveheart, who immediately establishes that he's willing to do horrible things.
 * Manipulative Bitch: Luna sees Celestia as this, to the point that she can't wrap her mind around the concept of her sister doing something without an ulterior motive.
 * Meaningful Name: Celestial's distrust of Luna's advisor is more understandable when you realize that the Latin word for Morning Star is Lucifer.
 * Ajax is derived from the Greek word "Aias", which in turn is from "aia", meaning earth. Ajax views himself to have a relationship with the earth akin to Celestia's relationship with the heavens. Mikhailovich is Russian for "Michael's Son", which implies that Ajax is similar to the archangel Michael.
 * The Medic: Fluttershy steps into this role when required, having already filled this role for her animal friends.
 * MST: Currently underway here.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: In Chapter 6, Time will tell if
 * In Chapter 7, Applejack has one when she realizes.
 * Same chapter
 * Applejack has another in chapter 11:
 * Nephewism: Lampshaded when Luna meets Prince Blueblood, and a major plot point:.
 * Never Say That Again: Fluttershy does not appreciate Twilight mentioning the Philomena incident. Rarity, likewise, dislikes hearing any mention of Prince Blueblood.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The tragedy of the past came about because of both Celestia and Luna's actions:
 * Celestia, ignoring her sister's wish to return to the heavens, set them up as God Princesses and created the Deadly Decadent Court, which entailed.
 * Luna, believing that Celestia intended to rule forever as an eternal tyrant, then.
 * Later  However, since history is Written by the Winners and there is some indication Luna may not have been all that off the mark in believing Celestia was a Manipulative Bitch, his word is suspect on the matter. The fact that he believes Luna was leading the charge against Celestia is a good indicator of the fact that he may be an Unreliable Expositor. Particularly since, by Luna's account, she was banished long before the Civil War he fought in happened, yet she is referenced in several history books as a monster who committed countless crimes, and  himself was more than willing to believe it. Celestia is hinted as far back as the first chapter as having incited the entire event. She makes a comment claiming she spent a hundred and fifty years 'fixing' Luna's 'mistake'. She apparently did this by demonizing her by setting the Civil War in motion, so that when the smoke cleared, Luna was considered Equestria's devil, while Celestia came out smelling like a rose. The recent reveal in Chapter 13 that seems to indicate that   to incite the civil war in order to do this seems to indicate that Celestia seems to shoulder the near entirety for the blame for the entire mess due to her unwillingness to stop lording over Equestria.
 * In Chapter 6,.
 * Noble Savage: Played with. Luna seems to think that the ideal society is one with minimal government and a strong spiritual connection to the Earth. This view is challenged by Zecora's revelation that.
 * Despite this, Luna goes right back to praising her views, as if this never happened, in Chapter 11.
 * Not So Different: Twilight accuses Luna of being just as guilty of manipulating and misleading others after . Twilight never stops to think that Luna is doing this because she doesn't want to see Applebloom lose her innocence about the world at such a young age, or get caught up in the mess that she and the rest of the adult ponies among the cast are dealing with. Granted, Twilight is very emotional state at the time, but it still gives her a brief Jerkass moment.
 * Pet the Dog: Braveheart gets two
 * The Plan: In addition to the one that backfired rather horribly in the long run, Celestia also pulled off one when she.
 * Precision F-Strike: By Braveheart in Chapter 3, when Luna reveals her plans for him.
 * Prince Charmless: Prince Blueblood, yet again.
 * The Princess: In the story it is a suppressed book written by one of Celestia's past students detailing the Princess's political philosophy and methodology.
 * Poor Communication Kills: Not only between the sisters, but in Chapter 2 Celestia's version of events only complicates matters further, as the Royal Guard assumes that Princess Luna has reverted to her evil ways and must be stopped by any means necessary. Particularly since Celestia ...
 * In Chapter 7,.
 * Purple Prose: The entire story is heavy with it, but the greatest offenders by some margin are Luna and Lightning Strike, both of whom are so overly florid that they think in purple prose.
 * Revenge by Proxy: After Luna and Twilight first manage to evade him, Braveheart sees nothing wrong with arresting Twilight's friends simply for being friends with a 'traitor'. The fact that Rarity and the others clearly have no clue what's going on just makes it easier in his opinion.
 * Rousseau Was Right: Luna's own personal philosophy. She believes that her subjects are predisposed towards good and that political society is a necessary evil to combat discord. Like Rousseau, Luna's ideas are more abstract, and laced with emotion than Celestia's more calculated and defined prescription for society.
 * Royal Guard Brutality: Braveheart's preferred methodology: storm in, tear everything apart, and threaten anyone who protests with trumped-up charges of conspiracy that 'justify' his beating them into compliance, all in the name of Princess Celestia.
 * Seemed Like a Good Idea At The Time: Celestia's choices concerning how to handle her sister were... somewhat ill-thought out in places.
 * Likewise, Luna's plan to had its flaws... such as.
 * Ship Tease: In Chapter 3, between Big Mac and.
 * Sibling Yin-Yang: In full display here, as Big Mac does his best to rein his sister's stubborn temper in.
 * Smug Snake: Captain Braveheart.
 * Snowball Lie: Celestia's rewriting of history and establishing lines of nobility by has resulted in snowball lies with a thousand years or so to build up steam.
 * Luna also gets caught up in one herself while trying to shield Apple Bloom from the full horrors of what her family and friends have gotten caught up in. It backfires when.
 * Sociopathic Soldier: Braveheart's unit is made up of Type Ones caught up in a deadly mixture of their captain's Royal Guard Brutality, Patriotic Fervor and the belief/fear/paranoia that Luna is becoming Nightmare Moon once again. Despite this status, Luna, Twilight and the others understandably do their utmost to avoid killing them.
 * Pay Evil Unto Evil: The Reason why he acts like this.
 * Standard Royal Court: Celestia wanted one of these. Luna didn't. Celly got her way.
 * Start of Darkness: For Captain Braveheart,.
 * Straw Feminist: Storm Cloud's introduction involves her giving Rarity a "The Reason You Suck" Speech for being too stereotypically 'girly'. According to Word of God, this wasn't about sexism at all (an absurdity in patently matriarchal Equestria), but about Screw Destiny and You Can't Fight Fate, as pertains to social roles: Storm is annoyed that Rarity allows herself to be defined by a very narrow understanding of what a "lady" is, while Rarity replies that she's chosen her profession when, at the base, her Cutie Mark only showed that she was good at finding gems, something that's more optimal for a miner than a tailor: Storm, on the other hand, assumed that since her cutie mark represented a weapon she was destined to be in the Guard, and has never looked back since. Basically one subverted her expected gender role while the other subverted her expected profession.
 * Straw Misogynist: Braveheart is openly contempteous towards Luna, describing her as a errant filly who needs a good spanking, and is equally dismissive of Twilight and the other female leads. He downplays their talents and potential threat level, even while gloating about how they're going to be punished for their defiance. When they do mount an effective resistance, he calls them witches and worse. According to Word of God, again, this is merely a matter of Braveheart being an insecure orphan Street Urchin who uses whatever means at his disposition to belittle, insult, and make himself superior to any opposition he's confronting. He's really equal opportunity when it comes to this standard procedure, it's just that he's had to face more females than males so far (he did compare Big Mac to Andre the Giant, among other things).
 * Talking the Monster to Death: The Mane Six (sans Twilight) try this on Ajax in chapter 13, after he confronts them in Everfree Forest.
 * Team Dad: Just as his sister AJ tends to serve as Team Mom for the Mane Cast, Big Macintosh shows his talent as a caretaker.
 * The Men First: Captain Braveheart cares more about the security of the young Pegasi under his command than about that of the citizens he's supposed to protect, to the point that he thinks his duty is to preemptively and violently incapacitate any threat before they get the slightest chance of hurting them. His line of thinking is far closer to that of a soldier rather than a law-enforcer.
 * Seems to be a common mindset, as another guard flat out says they don't have even the slightest care about the welfare of citizens, when Twilight calls him out on it he simply assumes she's just brainwashed.
 * The Quiet One: Big Mac's 'talkativeness' in Chapter 3 is Lampshaded when he lapses into silence and Luna asks why:
 * Straw Misogynist: Braveheart is openly contempteous towards Luna, describing her as a errant filly who needs a good spanking, and is equally dismissive of Twilight and the other female leads. He downplays their talents and potential threat level, even while gloating about how they're going to be punished for their defiance. When they do mount an effective resistance, he calls them witches and worse. According to Word of God, again, this is merely a matter of Braveheart being an insecure orphan Street Urchin who uses whatever means at his disposition to belittle, insult, and make himself superior to any opposition he's confronting. He's really equal opportunity when it comes to this standard procedure, it's just that he's had to face more females than males so far (he did compare Big Mac to Andre the Giant, among other things).
 * Talking the Monster to Death: The Mane Six (sans Twilight) try this on Ajax in chapter 13, after he confronts them in Everfree Forest.
 * Team Dad: Just as his sister AJ tends to serve as Team Mom for the Mane Cast, Big Macintosh shows his talent as a caretaker.
 * The Men First: Captain Braveheart cares more about the security of the young Pegasi under his command than about that of the citizens he's supposed to protect, to the point that he thinks his duty is to preemptively and violently incapacitate any threat before they get the slightest chance of hurting them. His line of thinking is far closer to that of a soldier rather than a law-enforcer.
 * Seems to be a common mindset, as another guard flat out says they don't have even the slightest care about the welfare of citizens, when Twilight calls him out on it he simply assumes she's just brainwashed.
 * The Quiet One: Big Mac's 'talkativeness' in Chapter 3 is Lampshaded when he lapses into silence and Luna asks why:


 * Undying Loyalty: The dragon Ajax to Celestia since she hatched and raised him. Twilight's heart goes out to him because he reminds her of Spike. Braveheart to Celestia as well: he was a Street Urchin in the slums of Canterlot before before finding purpose via the military academy and service to the princess. This seems to be a recurring theme with Celestia's pupils and captains, except for Morning Star,.
 * Ungrateful Bastard: Played with: Braveheart honestly is grateful after Pinkie Pie, but can't ignore the fact that she's friends with Twilight, and he's already declared that all of her friends are to be arrested on suspicion of being 'traitors' as well. When Pinkie hears about this, she's confused, but.
 * Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Prince Blueblood, already disliked after his showing at the canonical Grand Galloping Gala, is responsible here for informing Princess Luna precisely how she's been painted in the public eye, out of both idiocy and malice.
 * Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma: Grey Prophet apparently doesn't know that, when a line of dialogue's attribution follows it, you use a comma and not a period in the dialogue proper. He also doesn't like to use commas between narrative text and dialogue when the attribution precedes it. This is a very talky story.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: While Braveheart isn't very good at making first impressions due to his bruquse, chauvanistic and cruel behavior, he and his men are still trying to prevent.
 * 2000 years ago, Celestia became a borderline one to prevent the chaos seen during Discord's reign from ever appearing in Equestria again.
 * What The Hell, Celly?: Luna does not approve of how Celestia has handled things thus far.
 * And later
 * Inverted in that  It's worth noting that Luna points to a number of griffon nations on the planet that have had no divine rulers or protection for...possibly ever, and they do fine. One of those nations she also points out, is a successful democracy. Celestia just plain didn't give a damn about this, however, still insisting that she was right and Luna was wrong. That attitude leads into the events that set off the plot of the story in the first chapter.
 * Witch with a Capital B: Applejack's favored insult for Luna. Captain Braveheart also uses this several times, though he's not afraid to use the B-version as well.
 * Written by the Winners
 * You Got Spunk: Braveheart says as much to Twilight when she steps up to defend Luna. He also says he looks forward to torturing it out of her.
 * Unwitting Pawn:
 * Unwitting Pawn: