Princess Luna and the Festival of the Winter Moon

Princess Luna and the Festival of the Winter Moon

Princess Luna and the Festival of the Winter Moon
Published	November 3, 2015
Author	G. M. Berrow
ISBN	978-0-316-30169-5
Previous	Equestria Girls: Friendship Games
Next
See also
Allusions • Little, Brown and Company • Hachette Book Group

My Little Pony: Princess Luna and the Festival of the Winter Moon by G.M. Berrow is the fifteenth in a series of chapter books published by Little, Brown and Company and the second entry in a four-book miniseries called "The Princess Collection", following Princess Celestia and the Summer of Royal Waves. In this book, Princess Luna finds out about a festival being planned to honor her as a counterpart for the Summer Sun Celebration, but she does not feel comfortable about the attention she will receive.

Summary

Table of contents
Chapter title	Pages
Chapter 1: The Glorious Sun	1-8
Chapter 2: Royal Business	9-16
Chapter 3: An Unwelcome Visitor	17-24
Chapter 4: Princess in the Shadows	25-34
Chapter 5: News from Canterlot	35-42
Chapter 6: Guardian of the Night	43-52
Chapter 7: Ponyville's Big Secret	53-58
Chapter 8: Dreamwalking in a Winter Wonderland	59-66
Chapter 9: A Call to Ponyville	67-74
Chapter 10: The Tarax Hippo	75-84
Chapter 11: Royal We	85-90
Chapter 12: Dream Team	91-98
Chapter 13: Waking Up	99-106
Chapter 14: Of Great Importance	107-114
Chapter 15: The Festival of the Winter Moon	115-122
Chapter 16: A Lively Affair	123-131
Chapter 17: Luna in the Light	131-136
A Special Surprise	137-end

Royal Business

On the morning of the Summer Sun Celebration, Princess Luna is feeling rather nervous, but her sister, Princess Celestia, assures her that everypony came to Canterlot to see her.

A few moons later, in Ponyville, the Cutie Mark Crusaders tell Applejack that they are going to Canterlot to talk to Celestia about the idea they have. Applejack obliges, but assigns Big McIntosh as their chaperone. On the train, the Crusaders discuss that they are planning to surprise Luna with a festival celebrating the moon as a counterpart to the Summer Sun Celebration.

Princess in the Shadows

Luna wakes up from a dream about confronting Nightmare Moon to see the Crusaders getting off the Friendship Express. She overhears their suggestion to Celestia about the celebration for her, which Celestia thinks is a good idea. The Princess then tells the three little fillies about her sister's social uneasiness around others. Once the Crusaders return to Ponyville, they go over to Princess Twilight Sparkle's castle to tell the Mane Six about it. The Mane Six also like this idea, and the Crusaders ask for their help in organizing it.

Guardian of the Night

A few weeks later, Luna receives a signal on her magical map of Equestria about a disturbance in the swamplands. This disturbance turns out to be a conflict between a manticore and a chimera. She leaves a couple of white owls named Castor and Pollux to watch over Canterlot, and promises her pet opossum, Tiberius, that she will be back. At the swamplands, the manticore and the chimera are having an argument over which creature got to live where for the winter season. Luna, using her Royal Canterlot Voice, demands the two creatures to stand down, which they do, after a magical blast from Luna. After negotiations, the issue is resolved between the two parties. Luna returns to Canterlot for her dream duty.

Luna flies into Ponyville Town Square when some decorations outside Sugarcube Corner catch her eye. The decorations are all colored after her. She begins contemplating whether or not she should let the ponies throw her this party. She then enters Apple Bloom's dream disguised as as a white rabbit to spy on her. In her dream, Apple Bloom and her friends are gathering the decorations together for the WInter Moon Festival, which is what this celebration is being called. Luna transforms back into herself, and the dream Crusaders notice her, unaware that they are in a dream. Luna uses this to her advantage to make a little suggestion to improve it. The next morning, Apple Bloom goes over to the clubhouse and tells her fellow Crusaders to make everything pitch black and have everyone wear moonglasses in order to see everything.

The Tarax Hippo

Luna tells her royal guards, Echo and Nocturn, that she is going to Ponyville for a surprise visit. She meets up with Twilight, who is surprised by this unexpected business and becomes worried that this visit is an indication that Equestria might be in danger again, possibly from the Bugbear again. Luna claims to Twilight that a Tarax Hippo is on the loose, even though she had not seen one in a hundred moons. Twilight decides to run back to her castle, claiming that she is warning her friends about the Tarax Hippo, and almost spills the beans about the festival, but Luna assures her that the Tarax Hippo won't come anywhere as long as she is near.

Luna then stops over by the Crusaders' clubhouse to see them unpacking some moonglasses as well as some garlic necklaces. Luna feels relieved about this because she suggested these to sabotage the festival and not have this again. She then overhears the Crusaders talking about going over to see Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, and realizes she will have more dreams to visit.

Dream Team

Luna confronts her sister using the Royal Canterlot Voice about the Winter Moon Festival, telling her how she hates surprises. But Celestia contradicts her statement when reminding her of all of her additions to the Castle of the Two Sisters. Celestia suggests she simply play along for the sake of surprise, to which Luna agrees, but in her head, she thinks of other ways to ruin the festival.

The following morning, at Carousel Boutique, Rarity begins working on some "ceremonial cloaks" made of itchy wool. Pinkie tells Rarity about her idea to use "invisible" decorations for the party. Later when she goes upstairs, Rarity thinks back to a hat she purchased made of yarn and tiny cats, but then begins to question that hat, since she did not purchase one, as well as Pinkie's idea, and goes over to Twilight's castle. When she arrives, she sees Fluttershy leading some blue bugs called Ug Bugs she intends to release for the festival. Fluttershy then realizes that Luna told her to get some bugs in a dream. Applejack and the Crusaders arrive with some spicy rainbow juice and banana peel pudding. They all soon realize that Luna knows about the surprise.

While looking over her Dream Register from the night before, Luna notices a dream of Lyra Heartstrings being chased by the Tarax Hippo, the very creature she told Twilight was on the loose. Luna finds this peculiar since Twilight was the only pony she told about the creature. Celestia walks in on Luna wearing a new gown for the occasion and presenting Luna with a gown of her own. The two Princesses soon after make their way to the Winter Moon Festival.

The Festival of the Winter Moon

Rarity is the first to declare the festival a disaster, a sentiment which Rainbow Dash echoes after preparing some horrid looking bat-snowponies. All of the Mane Six and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, except for Pinkie Pie, notice how terrible the festival looks. Luna and Celestia arrive at the festival and for a brief moment, Luna forgets she was supposed to be feigning surprise. Luna then gradually realizes that the party was not being thrown in celebration of her mistakes as Nightmare Moon, but for all her accomplishments. The festival is then interrupted by Lyra, who is being chased by the real Tarax Hippo. Luna tells Celestia that she probably accidentally summoned the Tarax Hippo awake when she told Twilight about it. Celestia attempts some magical zaps at the Hippo, but they go right through him. Luna realizes that the Hippo wants the garlic necklaces.

Quotes

Pinkie Pie: A party?! I was not expecting that. [looks at her Party Watch] Heeeey! This thing must be broken!

Scootaloo: Squawk! Look—I'm a chicken!

Apple Bloom: This meeting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders is called to order!

Sweetie Belle: Can we make it fast? I couldn't sleep last night. Something really loud woke me up.

Scootaloo: Was it a big rawr-type noise? 'Cause I heard that!

Sweetie Belle: No, it was Rarity's snoring. You'd never expect it but she really—

Apple Bloom: Boy, are we lucky that DJ Pon-3 and Octavia had all these extra moonglasses hanging around in their basement.

Scootaloo: What are moonglasses anyway?

Apple Bloom: They make it so you can see in the dark! You know, like night-vision. Also, they make me look really cool. Deal with it.

Princess Celestia: Thank you, Sister. Now, please go get some rest. Anypony ever tell you that you're rather unpleasant when you're tired?

Princess Luna: Gratias lunam et stellas. Thank you, my dear moon and brilliant stars for another peaceful night.

Rarity: Don't you all see?

Sweetie Belle: I see the mess we've made of the Winter Moon Festival. What are we gonna do?!

Rarity: Nothing! Obviously, Princess Luna visited us in our dreams to change the Winter Moon Festival because she knows about the surprise. And these are the things she wants at her party! She's just far too shy to tell us.

Rarity: What was I thinking? This has got to be the stinkiest, ugliest festival ever thrown in the history of Equestria!