Moonbeam
is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fan fiction by Laurence Brown, which answers what happened to Luna but staying as close to the show as possible.
It has been a month since Luna has returned and things haven't been working out. Most ponies would rather run away then look at her; over the years most of her tasks have been filled by others and most of the government is opposed to her taking back the moon. It wasn't until Luna has a bad dream where she meets Nightmare Moon face to face that she gets an idea to change things. Using an illusion spell to make her look like another pony, Luna will be able to make friends without anyone worrying about her past. The spell works, but it turns her into a real Earth Pony. She also made some friends: Dewdrop, a Unicorn maid; Feather Down, an Earth Pony who's a narcoleptic waitress; a grumpy Pegasus farmer Haystack and an Earth Pony farmer named Pine Needle.
A sequel was released, called Phases of The Moon. This deals with Luna and friends trying to work on her approval rating. It also shares community with Laurence Brown's other works.
Also available in Fimfiction.net here and it's sequel here.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Badass Normal: Luna's friends do a pretty good job-fighting Nightmare Moon until Luna is able to banish her again.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Just like in the show the ponies often get messy, Like Dewdrop's dress but are fine later on, Justified with Dewdrop, her magic is cleaning base, she is a maid after all.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: One of the reasons why Pine Needle likes Luna is because she's the only one to take his "Earth Pony Magic" Seriously.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Dewdrop and Haystack.
- Boring, but Practical: Often.
- Brought Down to Normal:
- The spell Luna uses, turns her into an Earth Pony as so removes everything that normal Earth Ponies don't have. Her immortality being one of them.
- Twilight later tries out the spell.
- Cool Big Sis: Played With. While Celestia wants what's best for Luna, she really can't force others to like her.
- Dead Fic: The sequel hasn't been updated since 2012.
- Decadent Court: Celestia is revealed to keep the nobles like this (well a mostly just a lot of favours and multiplication) so they are too distracted to run Equestria allowing Celestia to appoint ponies based on Competence rather than connections.
- Enemy Within: Nightmare Moon whenever Luna has a dream.
- Enemy Without: Turns out they're not dreams, she's really talking to her dark part on the moon, and later Nightmare fully breaks free.
- Everyone Can See It: Dewdrop and Haystack.
- Fetish: Pine Needle wants to be tied up by Applejack too. The Running of the Leaves overlaps with Fall Weather Friends from the series. Pine Needle, who has a massive crush on Applejack briefly sees her tying up Rainbow Dash in preparation for the race.Pine Needle: Lucky Rainbow Dash.
- A God Am I: Nightmare Moon goes on a rant about how normal ponies should be worshipping them as gods.
- Green Thumb: "Earth Pony Magic" is a passive version.
- Handwaved: In-universe, Celestia explains that Luna is on a trip. The fact that everyone buys it without a problem upsets her greatly.
- Hated by All: Thanks to Nightmare Moon. Very few ponies like Luna at the start of the story, one even flat out insults her.
- Heavy Sleeper: Feather Down, big time.
- I Call It "Vera": Feather Down named her bed Phillipe. On top of that, she named Luna's bed Ricardo. Just don't tell Phillipe as Feather Down doesn't want him to know that she's been sleeping in other beds.
- I Just Want to Have Friends:
- Guess who?
- Turns out Celestia wants some too.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: During the Running of the Leaves a group of ponies throw a pillow near Feather Down, she's insulted that they think she'll sleep down anywhere with such a poorly made pillow.
- Jerkass: Nightmare Moon doesn't seem to be able to not insult someone whenever she talks.
- Lampshade Hanging: The cast make a few jokes about the show, like how during the Running of the Leaves Pinkie Pie doesn't mention any other runners.
- Later Luna and Pine Needle dig a hole using shovels, poorly, Luna wonders why they made something that 2/3 of the population can barley use it.
- Large Ham: Pine Needle, he's from Stalliongrad.
- Manipulative Bitch: Nightmare Moon is the reason for both Luna's low self-esteem, and is able to effect ponies around her so they will mistrust and fear Luna.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Dewdrop's boss has a secret weapon for when the staff is out of the Inn A "We'll be Back" sign.
- No Social Skills: Luna, of course, she gets better as the story goes.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: An in-universe example with Feather Down; she fell asleep during last year's Running of the Leaves.
- Painful Transformation: The spell wasn't designed to be used on Alicorns.
-
Playing Against Type: Haystack is a Pegasus that farms rather than something flying related. - Princesses Rule: The sole reason why Celestia keeps the nobles around is to justify using her princess title.
- King Incognito
- Serious Business: Feather Down with sleeping and Pine Needle with farming and being an Earth Pony.
- Shout-Out: Nightmare Moon conjures an illusory Umber Hulk.
- Shown Their Work: One of the few Fan Fictions that remembers Alicorns have the traits of all three ponies.
- Slice of Life: Most of the story is about Luna and her friends day to day life.
- Team Mom / Team Dad: Dewdrop and Haystack.
- Worldbuilding: A big part of the story is how the ponies do things without Unicorn magic.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: How Luna's friends are able to save her from Nightmare Moon.
