Celestia was squinting her eyes while she carefully nudged the picture frame with her magic, she took a quick peek at her spirit level to confirm if the picture frame was completely horizontal which luckily for her it was. Very carefully Celestia released the picture frame from her magic, making sure she didn't move it again unintentionally and being forced to repeat the process again. She took a few steps backwards and smiled.
"Perfect." She happily congratulated herself.
The picture frame contained a picture of Nightmare Moon, which according to the law every citizen was required to have displayed in their home and business if they had one. Not only that but the picture was also required to be in a clearly visible place, be dusted regularly and had to be positioned completely level. Failure to follow these laws could be punished with a prison sentence up to ten years. According to a passer by the punishment used to be even higher and some ponies where even executed.
The former princess looked around and she couldn't help but smile. Celestia had bought a small bakery in Canterlot using the bits given to her by Nightmare Moon. The bakery looked lovely and she had build it herself, she couldn't remember the last time she had actually done something herself other than raising the sun or making breakfast. It wasn't a very large place but it was good enough, Celestia wasn't interested in being the biggest or the best, she just wanted to have a normal job and live a normal life.
Anything was better than the prison she spent the last year in. Celestia still didn't completely understand the circumstances of her release, all Celestia knew was that there was some sort of uprising against Nightmare Moon and that because of that Nightmare Moon realised that violence would only lead to more violence and that she was released from prison in order to appease the population and break the cycle of perpetual violence.
However a short glance at Nightmare Moon's portrait and remembering the rules surrounding it made it clear that her sister had not completely gotten rid of her violent tendencies. Celestia sighed, the days of harmony and friendship where truly over, the only thing she could do now was simply trying to live her life and survive.
To that end she trotted towards her oven to check on her cakes. She opened the door and the absolutely delightful smell that subsequently filled the room signalled to her that her very first cakes were ready. Of course she had baked many cakes before this, in fact her love for them was legendary in Equestria, this was also the reason why she wanted to start her own bakery, to spread her love for cakes to others, but these were the first ones that were meant to be sold. This was going to be her live from now on, waking up, baking cakes, selling them, going to bed again and rinse and repeat.
An hour of hard work later and Celestia was finally ready to begin her first day as a baker. The former princess wiped some sweat off her forehead, she hadn't worked this hard in a very long time. She casually trotted to the front door. The white alicorn took one final look at her baked delicacies to see if something was wrong before flipping to "closed" sign to "open".
It took some time for the first customer to arrive. Celestia mentally facehooved herself for somehow getting the idea that everypony in the area would somehow flock to her bakery the second it opened. She shouldn't have read all those fairy tales where everything always instantly goes perfect, then again Luna used to love it when she read her those stories to her before bedtime.
A feeling of sadness suddenly overwhelmed Celestia.
"How could things have come to this?" She wondered.
One moment things were fine, then she put Luna in contact with the elements of harmony to mend the relationship between batponies and ponies, which apparently wasn't going too well but there weren't any major problems or anything that warranted a violent approach. Yet that is exactly what happened, Luna turned into Nightmare Moon again but this time she didn't just fight against her but she also waged war against Equestria as a whole using her new batpony allies and Rarity.
"Rarity." Celestia mumbled.
It was one of the lesser known aspects of the war, how it broke the elements of harmony apart. On the other hoof it was hard to focus on the lives of six ponies during a war where hundreds of thousands of ponies would eventually die. Celestia didn't know the exact number, at first she read every casualty rapport but it just broke her heart reading about all those ruined lives and torn apart families. So she stopped reading them eventually.
The remaining elements fought by her side courageously but they could simply not hold Nightmare Moon back, they could match her armies in the field but they could not match her ruthlessness, every city or town that they fortified was simply destroyed by Nightmare Moon's artillery and air force. When she realised that the war was lost and all she could do was pointlessly delay the inevitable and cause more of her precious little ponies to die, Celestia surrendered to Nightmare Moon.
In a final act of defiance, Celestia had send Twilight and her friends to the Crystal Empire. Twilight was like a daughter to her and she couldn't live with herself if Twilight died. Tears started to form in Celestia's eyes.
"What kind of horrible princess am I? sending hundreds of thousands of ponies to their deaths while saving six." She thought to herself.
In the end it didn't even matter, the Crystal Empire fell soon after Equestria. She hadn't heard anything about the remaining elements of harmony or Cadence, Shining Armor and Flurry Heart after being set free. She tried to comfort herself with the thought that Rarity wouldn't harm any of her former friends, but she didn't think that Rarity was capable of joining Nightmare Moon either.
Celestia looked outside at all the ponies living their lives, going to work or having breakfast. Sometimes she wondered whether she gave up too easily. Maybe she should have continued to fight, maybe she should fight right now, try to give these ponies a better future. Then again now these ponies were alive, in chains and at the mercy of her sister, but at least they were alive.
"Am I a coward?" She silently wondered.
Before Celestia could answer her question a bell rang and the door of her bakery opened. A light blue unicorn mare with a dark blue periwinkle mane and tail walked inside. Celestia quickly put on her kindest smile, on of the perks of being a princess for several thousand years was that she became very good at hiding her emotions. She turns to the mare and begins to speak in a very sweet voice.
"Welcome to Rainbow Delight (She mentally cringed at hearing the name out loud. Coming up with a good name turned out to be very difficult without the Equestrian Naming Department to help her), how can I help you?"
The mare whom Celestia recognised as Minuette had a dull expression on her face but when she saw Celestia she led out a surprised gasp and continued to stare at her, not moving.
"Minuette would you perhaps be interested in a chocolate cake?" Celestia asked again, trying to get a response.
Finally the light blue coated mare realised where she was.
"Uhm y-y-yes p-please. Princess Celestia! What are you doing here and how do you remember my name?"
The white alicorn grabbed a chocolate cake and carefully packed it in a box, she also added in a slice of apple pie, for free of course, it may not have been the wisest business move but imagining the smile on the Minuette's face when she would see the extra slice was payment enough for Celestia. She finished it by wrapping a bright pink ribbon around the box.
"Here you go." She says while handing over the box. "And you can just call me Celestia, there is no need for titles anymore. To answer you question, I have been released from prison, so I thought why not turn my hobby into my new job. And I try to remember the names of all the students of the School of Gifted Unicorns, it always warmed my heart seeing you, Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine trying to become friends with Twilight even though back then she was more interested in studying. I am not sure if I ever mentioned it but I was very proud of you back then."
The light blue mare radiated happiness at this point.
"I always thought that you forgot all about us after our graduation. I never imagined that we managed to impress you in such a way. I am glad I met you here, it is nice seeing a friendly face around here with all that is going on."
"Did something bad happened while I was gone?" Celestia asked. She may not have been a princess anymore but that wouldn't stop her from caring about her fellow ponies.
"Of course not! Nightmare Moon is the best leader we ever had, her beautiful moon brightens all of our hearts!"
Minuette spoke in the happiest way possible but Celestia could sense that she was lying, no creature smiled in such an exaggerated way normally. One quick glance outside revealed why, on the street opposite the bakery sat a batpony wearing a trench coat and hat, he held a newspaper in his hooves but it was very obvious that he was looking at Celestia and Minuette.
Celestia figured that he was there mostly to spy on her and not her customers. She was after all the former ruler so naturally Nightmare Moon would want to know what her sister was up to.
"I have to go to work now but thank you for speaking to me, it means the world to me that I made you proud. I will see if I can get Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine to come with me next time. We can make a little reunion. Bye"
"I would very much like that and I hope to see you again soon."
After Minuette left it was Celestia's turn to beam with happiness. Seeing one of her former students become so happy after a simple conversation and some cake, it truly meant the world to her. Celestia now knew that this was the right place for her.