1st of the First moon, 1500 A.E. (After Equestria)
A new year. A time of celebration, hope and planning for most ponies of Equestria. Street vendors were selling leftover toys from hearth’s warming eve, nobles were preparing for the upcoming Gala. Yet, for Equestria’s ruler, every dawn of each new year was a sad time of recollections and regrets.
Standing on the balcony where she usually raised the sun, Celestia’s gaze lingered on the mark of her sister’s plight on the moon. It had been 950 years since Luna’s sudden and heartbreaking banishment. The mark reminded her of her greatest failure, her ignorance, and what could have gone differently if she wasn’t so arrogant.
However, Equestria needed her sun, and no matter how long she wanted to contemplate, she had to raise it. The celestial orb rose at her request with the utmost grace, it’s brilliance reflecting off the snow-white meadows and hills of Equestria. A truly beautiful sight, and one Celestia would have enjoyed had this been any other day. After her chore, she stood on her balcony for a while, wondering what to do for this rare day off in the busy routine of Equestria’s princess. She tried to get her sister out of her mind, yet also felt a pang of guilt for doing so.
Above all, she still hadn’t figured out how to reconcile with her sister when she would be released in half a century, if her calculations were correct. What would she do? The elements of kindness and generosity that she once held didn’t budge when she approached them. Worst of all, she knew it was all her fault. Instead of generously sharing their subjects' adoration with her sister, she took guilty pleasure in soaking all of it in. Instead of comforting Luna with kindness when she was falling into jealousy and hate, she only chastised her.
It would be a miracle if the elements would still trust me, mused Celestia. She still wore all three of them around, yet the element of magic was the only one that responded to her. With nothing more, even in 50 years if she managed to defeat Nightmare Moon again, she would only be banishing her sister for a second time. After what she went through during her first thousand years of solitude, Celestia wasn’t sure either Luna or her could survive another without going insane.
Trying to clear her thoughts, she put down her crown and sandals, walking out of the large gates of Canterlot Castle into the city below. The snow was fairly deep, going up to about half her legs. While most ponies were still indoors, a few of her subjects who were awake at this hour greeted her with joy, and she herself returned them with a kind smile. All that, however, couldn’t fill the empty void in her heart that was only growing. As she turned the corner and went into a narrow alleyway, she tripped over a snow-covered boulder in the middle of the road.
As she looked down in annoyance, the boulder began to shuffle, rhythmically moving up and down. Curious, Celestia cleared away the snow with her magic, and discovered two ponies. A chestnut brown mare and lime green stallion, both earth ponies, limply lying on the ground. Horrified, she quickly tried to check their pulses. If they even wanted to have a small chance of survival, they had to go to the hospital fast. The results, however, dismayed her even further. There were no life signs. Judging by their cold bodies, it had been at least a few hours. Worse still, their bodies were dotted with small sores and postules. The hoof pox was responsible for the death of one-third of all ponies, especially earth ponies who couldn't use magic to enhance their immune systems.
Suddenly, their bodies shuffled again. Celestia grimly lifted the front leg of the mare carefully, and there was what she suspected. A six, maybe seven-year old earth pony filly with a yellow coat and a black mane. She was trembling from the cold, tears glistening like small jewels on her cheeks.
She looked up at Celestia, her emerald eyes filling with even more tears. She looked back at, presumably, her parents, and finally began to wail and cry with all the remaining strength within her.
"There, there, it's okay, everything will be fine." Celestia calmed with a soothing voice. Truthfully, it wasn't okay. The filly's parents were dead. Even after her immortal reign, and the hundreds of deaths that she saw, it was sad to send away the ponies she cared about. She still had her sister, too, however far away she may be. She didn't know how to comfort a filly who had lost everything in her life so quickly.
However, the filly didn't seem to care, as she ran into Celestia's hooves, tightly hugging them as she cried and cried. Celestia didn't, or rather couldn't, do much, as she just stood there and shielded the filly from the harsh winter winds bearing down on them. She waited until the filly cried herself dry, her sorrow vented out into the frigid air. "What's your name?"
The filly said through sniffs and hiccups, "I-It's Pillar, ma'am. Cater Pillar."
"Do you know who I am?"
Pillar gave a sorrowful smile through her bloodshot eyes. "Who doesn't know the prin- princess of all Equestrians?"
Celestia sighed. It was at these moments that she hated her job the most. She simply wanted to hug Pillar, guide her through her new, cruel life. Yet, she was a princess, and a hoof pox outbreak could cause serious issues on the population of a large city like Canterlot. "Okay, Pillar, this must be hard for you, but your parents... passed away from a dangerous disease. It can be dangerous to other ponies as well. Can you tell me where your parents went before-"
"Th-they didn't d-die of the p-pox," Even as her hiccups got worse, Pillar cut her off with fire in her eyes. Celestia was intrigued by this sudden change of tone. "What?"
"They didn't die of the pox," Pillar repeated, her voice a bit clearer. "My p-parents oversped a little, had me before they were married. Townsfolk didn't like th-those kinds of things. They were discovered a year ago, when the pox was hitting our town. They kicked us outta town, calling us the r-reason behind god's fury or whatever."
She continued on, "W-we saw a poster looking for servants in a noble house. We never had much money, and had to leave most of our stuff behind when we left. Really had no choice but to work there-" She stopped, apparently recalling a difficult, painful memory.
"-Then they began to show symptoms. P-Postules, high fever, and a bunch of other stuff that made them r-really sick. They decided to hide it once more, in fear of getting kicked out again. I-It didn't work. The noble family freaked out. They terminated our contract, and kicked us out on last night's blizzard-"
Celestia was taken aback to hear such a story, yet even more so watching Pillar's expression change. Even through her hiccups, her teary face didn't only show pain. It betrayed anger, hate, and a desire for revenge. It was a face Celestia had seen all too well, exactly nine hundred and fifty years ago. "I pleaded to them, 'S-some ponies do s-survive the hoof pox. They will never m-make it through this night out in this weather. Please...please... have m-mercy... just one more night...' they didn't even budge."
Even after all those tears, she began to cry once more, an eerie silence encircling the two of them. Then, she uttered those terrible words. "I-I want to see all of them catch the pox. To s-see them wither and die. then they would know how it feels. I would die myself to see them-"
Pillar couldn't finish her sentence as she was held by Celestia's embrace. She was shocked by the princess's regality crumbling as she felt the warmth of Celestia's fur soaking into her body, but she didn't care. It was honestly all she needed right now. An escapade from the disaster that struck her mere hours ago.
Celestia began to speak in her kind voice, "Pillar, No one, no one deserves to die. Not your parents, not even the nobles that were cruel to you, and especially not you."
Celestia's mind screamed at her for her idiocy. She didn't know what she was doing. She should be taking this filly to an orphanage, an administrative building, anyplace official. She should not be attaching herself to this filly who she even barely knew. Yet something inside her was not giving a pile of stinking manure.
"If you have to blame anypony, than blame me," She went on, "I, through all these years of living, haven't found a way to end pony suffering. I can't bring back your parents, but I'll do anything to help you get through these hard times."
Pillar blinked, stunned by this offer. The higher-class ponies she knew weren't all bad, yet she had never seen a pony so brilliant and regal that understood her pain and cared for her so deeply as well.
She took a deep breath, and made her heartfelt request. "Can I stay with you?"
Celestia's mind was screaming again. You have a kingdom to rule. You don't even know how to raise a pony. You saw the anger in her eyes, you will be unimaginably hurt if she turns out bad, you idiot... you idiot...
Yet she now realized what that 'something' in her mind was.
It was the age-old glow of the two elements she didn't connect with for so long, kindness and generosity. They overwhelmed her, saying this was the right thing to do, don't ever let go. She was surging with happiness, and a feeling that hadn't overtook her in such a long time. The Magic Of Friendship.
How could she say no to such a feeling?
She was spiraling down a thousand-year hole that was leading to banishing her sister again, or going insane from loneliness and regret, or something even more dark and sinister.
She had to take the chance, or die trying. She said to the young filly, "Are you sure?" The filly nodded yes.
"Hop on, then. Let's find a place to pay our respects," said Celestia. The filly nodded again, and solemnly obliged. This morning had taken everything from her, washed her away into a cold and unforgiving river. Yet, with this new life, and the princess's promise, she might be able to get another anchor.