After the events with the Tantabus, Luna thinks she's got everything under control. However, when Twilight drops in to pay her a visit, she starts to question her own actions.

As rationales go, you shouldn't allow first-year Gifted School students to have a project fair for the same reason you don't test dynamite by kicking it into the nearest wall. But since everypony else has moved on, the current school staff decided to show Celestia just how they were going to repeat the same old mistake. Because while this day may host ideas waiting for their time to come, that time is not now.

No matter how much anypony wants it to be.

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group: new members and trope edits welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

It has been nearly a year since her return, but Luna continues to hide herself away from everypony else, including her sister, and continues to drift farther and farther away. But now the time has come to change that...

Princess Celestia has always been an incredibly busy pony who never has enough time in the day to do what she wants. Time seems to slip by as she struggles to get all of her work done.

One day, however, something terrible and unexpected happens, and more time than ever is lost to the sands. When Celestia reawakens, she'll find that her entire world is gone and that almost everything she knew and loved has long since disappeared.

A tale of sadness and of tragedy, the likes of which not often seen. Celestia, Princess of the sun...grand ruler of Equestria, and loving sister. Painful are the tears she will shed, and broken her heart will remain.

There is no greater pain than that of utter helplessness.

"The stars have faded. The moon has grown distant from me. Sister, what has happened during the thousand years of my absence? What has happened to my night?"

Archive of Our Own Version

Featured on October 19, 2013

Octavia Melody's love of music has revolved around a single influential and prestigious work of art, the song May Our Sun Shine Forever. Since she was a filly, what has been the Equestrian national anthem for generations has continually inspired Octavia to perform, shaping her into the promising cellist she is today. Though the completed original was lost to the passage of time, the remnants of the final masterpiece composed by the Grand Maestro Glissando has been the cornerstone of not only Octavia's career, but modern music theory in Equestria.

When the tattered remains of an ancient songbook possibly containing the original song in its entirety is found, the Equestrian Society for the Performing Arts and Princess Luna begin planning a concert series to celebrate the work's eventual restoration. However, their meeting screeches to a halt once Princess Celestia vehemently forbids anypony from playing the original in the concert and demands its restoration to cease immediately. Octavia Melody finds herself at a loss, wondering why the princess of the sun would silence such a beautiful song meant to bring light to the world.

Proofread and Edited by TheAncientPolitzanian and various others over the years of trying to fix this thing.
Cover Art Depressing Melody by TertonDA
Updated 02/27/24

Twilight is showing Celestia her new invention – an advanced lie detector. Without her knowledge, Luna and James asked her friends to join the presentation. But that shouldn't be a problem. After all, the mane six has nothing to hide! … right?

Meta:

Cover based on the images from: https://derpibooru.org/images/1517277 and https://www.deviantart.com/estories/art/Background-Twilight-s-Castle-Library-2-781634544
Proofread by Ginger and Grammarly
Now with YT reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBl1VIyvcS4 (all thanks goes to StraightToThePointStudio for his awesome work)

Another one to get into the feature box. Thank you, dear readers, I hope you enjoyed it

“My daughter Celestia, look at me. I love you, and I wish the best for you in the eons of labor you have yet to endure. So heed my words. When we planted light upon the fields of Creation, Celestia, it was a divine thing. But there will come a time when our brilliance won't be enough. It will take a great, unknowable darkness to test the luminescence that we have bequeathed life. That is an abyss that we can never, ever follow our children down, no matter how much we love them.”

A Silver Medalist of the Ponychan /Fic/ Write-Off: "Cutting Ties"

Principal Celestia always has wings in her dreams.

They got her into trouble, once. She let herself believe that they meant she was an angel. Then she grew up, and learned some hard lessons about what being an angel really required.

Now six magical girls have just fought a demon in front of her school. And her phantom wings are itching.

Her life is turning upside down ... and she hasn't even heard about Equestria yet.

Rated Highly Recommended (Top 15 Stories Sitewide) by Present Perfect! "It's f**king flawless, you guys. … The first [6]00-word chapter by itself is a masterpiece."

"Literally the single best EqG story on the site." —Professor Plum
"[One] of the best stories on the site, period." —Pearple Prose
"One of my all-time favorite pieces of fanfiction." –brokenimage321
"My favorite EQG fic of absolute all." -Skywriter

Rated Why Haven't You Read This Yet? by PaulAsaran! "I might have been skeptical going in, but horizon knocked it out of the park."

Rated 5/5 by csquared08! "The opening chapter here was truly something else. ... Then I hit the end of chapter 3. holy crap."

Rated ★★★★ by Louder Yay! "A lesser writer might have made a horrible, cliché-ridden mess of this story, but fortunately horizon is not a lesser writer. For a start, it's by some distance the best portrayal of the human world's Celestia I've read."

Third place in the "Under the Sun" June 2017 Writeoff!  (That first draft has been revised and expanded for FIMFiction.) Praise for the Writeoff version:

"Holy cow ... That's how you write an EqG fanfic! You captured the heart and SOUL of this/your version of Principal Celestia, wrapped it up in bi-universal consistency, and sold me on an idea of redemption I didn't even know I needed." —Xepher

"This is gorgeous. A thorough, exhaustive, incredibly moving portrait of a character who I don't think I've ever seen get quite this much development or attention." —Posh

"This is actually, after all these years, an original take on a story on Luna's banishment. If that's not something to be celebrated I don't know what is." —Quill Scratch, Radio Writeoff

MORE REVIEWER PRAISE: Rated "Definitely Read" by Super Trampoline! Reviewed by City of Doors! Reviewed by Titanium Dragon! Featured on Equestria Daily!

Rated T for brief cursing and alcohol use. Cover art by Seniloko, used under Creative Commons license.

Translations:

中文 - 行政天使

Can you engineer an eclipse to order? You can if you know the right princess and ask nicely.