The four princess sat at a round table drinking tea and conversing about Equestia's newest princess. Twilight Sparkle had just been crowned, and so she needed to learn being a proper princess.
After chatting and joking and eating passed, Twilight looked Celestia in the eye and asked, "Princess, you and Luna have such beautiful, flowing manes. And Cadence's looks just like her Empire. I'm curious as to how your manes are more beautiful than any other pony in Equestria?"
The white alicorn chuckled and place her cup down. Her pastel mane seemed to never stop moving, even with no wind, nor stop shimmering."Oh Twilight, our manes have had time to mature and grow out because we are immortal. They react with our princess duties. I raise the sun and bring the day,and in my sister's absence I rose the moon as well, and so I have the pale colors of the day and some of the night as well. Luna raises the moon and brings the night, so her mane is starry and dark like the night sky. And Cadenza rules over the Crystal Empire and so her mane has a sheen of the crystals to match," Celestia smiled warmly.
"Yes indeed, once you have found what you rule your mane will show that as well, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said delightfully. "When I had been released from my prison as Nightmare Moon it took quite a while for my mane to continue its original night sky."
Twilight levitated her cup to her lips and took a drink. But, princesses, when did these begin to occur? Celestia stated that her's has had time to 'grow and mature' but when had it started to form like this?"
"I've always been curious about this too, Celestia. Shining has been asking if my mane will grow this way too, haha," Cadence laughed.
Luna turned to her sister, because she knew the story too well. Celestia looked at her with warm eyes. "It's alright, Luna,I promise it. If she's curious, than she will receive an answer..."
"Please, Luna, do not do this! Thou is foolish to believe our subjects do not love your precious night! They become sleepy playing in the day, they need their re-" Celestia's plea was cut off as a surge of dark magic bit her horn, barely missing her pink mane.
"No, we must do this to show our subjects!" Nightmare Moon bellowed at her sister. "We have gone through centuries of pain because of them!"
Celestia's eyes filled with tears. How misguided her little sister had become. She lifted the Elements crown and placed it on her head. "Thou has one warning, Luna, please relent now," She stared her sister firmly in the eye.
For a second Luna's innocent eyes appeared in the helmet, alone and afraid...but they were quickly dismissed. "No no, Tia. We aren't allowing you to win quite easily. The night will last forever to show them how wonderful the night can be!" She laughed and charged forward, aiming for her sister's throat with her horn.
Celestia could feel the power surge through her with help of the crown. She began charging as well, but aiming for the helmet. They slammed into each other with all their power. Celestia cried out in pain as her sister overpowered her and knocked her to the ground. She shook it off and stood before Luna could jab her throat. Her horn glowed gold as the spell began to power.
"We will banish you to a place where you cannot threaten our land again," Celestia allowed a single tear to fall down her cheek. "TO THE MOON!" A golden rainbow erupted from her horn and shot at her sister. Nightmare Moon screamed in agony as her very being began being ripped apart, transporting somepony else such a distance can be torture. The room lit up white for minutes on end, Finally the room dimmed and Celestia was alone. The crown fell off of her head as she crumpled down onto the floor. The moon had raised by the time she had the will power to stand up once more, and an imprint of a mare with a long horn now lay in the crescent.
Where Nightmare Moon once stood was nothing but a pile of dark gems and an ancient scroll place neatly on top. Celestia read through the scroll two times before accepting she would raise the sun and moon for the next one thousand years, and would change because of it. The lonesome princess already saw a blue streak forming in her mane, something that terrified her at first.
For a millennium she would raise the Sun and the Moon, every time streaks of color would twist into her mane. The Sun wove in the green of a grassy meadow, while the Moon would force two shades of blue for the night and its stars. Her mane was beautiful, because of her sister's imprisonment. But she didn't want this, she has never wanted this.
When the white princess finished recounting her tale, a silence fell upon the room. She was dark, like Sombra had taken over her body just to tell this story of pain and the changes that come from it. It was nothing but the royal service walking about cleaning the castle for a long time.
"Oh, I didn't know your mane had changed that way. I thought your genetics caused a chemical reaction in your mane follicles and thus making your hair become a spectrum of colors," Twilight explained.
Celestia laughed cheerfully. "Not at all, Twilight. We were once ponies just like you, with a mother and a father, but neither of them were really our biological parents. We were born from the Sun's rays and the Moon's beams when Equestria was formed by the three tribes long ago."
Cadence was growing in curiosity of the manes just as much as Twilight had. "Luna, what about your mane?"
Luna looked as though she'd been slapped. Could she really explain how her mane had changed?