In a lunar eclipse, the moon is the focus. For that brief moment, solar coronas halo the dark magnificence and everypony gazes upon its wonder.
My entire life, I have been out-shadowed by the sun.
My reflection stared back at me, unblinking. She was the same; 'twas as if no time had passed at all. The aqua mane still fell in awkward bundles about my neck and shoulders, and too long legs with knobby knees supported a gawky frame. I was no more than the silly filly who had dared to challenge the most powerful being in Equestria a thousand years ago.
The first century or so of my exile had been blindly fueled by anger. In the never-ending night, I would stare with hatred and fury at the tiny spot I swore was Canterlot and imagine all the ways I would make them - make her - pay. As the Nightmare's influence faded, so did my rage, and with nothing to slake the thirst of its lust for fear and destruction, anger gave way to sadness. Sadness became loneliness, and loneliness evolved into soul-crushing despair. Alone, on an archipelago of irony, stranded by my own design, I resigned myself to the truth.
I was never going home.
A hoof at the door interrupted my reverie.
"Enter," I said. The large mahogany doors of my chamber pushed open just enough for a member of the Royal Guard to poke his head in.
"The Princess is awaiting your presence on the balcony. It's almost time for sunset," he replied.
I nodded, once.
He looked me, brow furrowed. "Milady... you are not dressed."
My eyes went to my crown, which lay upon my bed, along with my hoof adornments and royal necklace.
"How many seasons hast thou?" I asked suddenly. The stallion blinked, taken aback by the question.
"Er, twenty six summers, milady."
A yearling... Ye gods. In the days before my exile, he would have fought, killed, died for us. Now... Royal Guard duty was reduced to collecting recalcitrant younger sisters.
"And how many of those have been in Mine sister's service?"
"Seven, milady."
"Thou knowst who We are," I said, looking back at my reflection.
"Princess Luna of the Royal Celestial House," he answered evenly.
"And dost thou know who We were?" I queried, casting a glance back over my shoulder, eyes narrowed.
The guard nodded, shifting his weight from hoof to hoof, clearly weighing the dangers of continuing a discussion with an alicorn princess who was asking deranged questions. He cleared his throat after a while.
"Yes, milady. I grew up beneath your shadow. As a colt, I feared you. Every Nightmare Night, I was terrified you would come for me."
"Say it," I whispered. "Say Our name."
"The Mare in the Moon," he replied softly.
I turned to face the guard, biting my lower lip, his words burning in my ears. I lowered them. Mare. Mare. That was it. The millennium had aged my mind and worn my soul, but my form was locked in stasis by whatever spell my dear sister used to save my sanity.
The silence that settled over the room was like an oppressive blanket, thick and heavy. I was losing the battle with my emotions, and they began to show upon my face. The guard watched me uncomfortably. I did not blame him. This was a situation for which there was no protocol, no handbook. His Princess had demanded an answer, and his answer had upset her. I saw his eyes look left and right, his chest expand as a deep breath was taken and some internal decision was reached.
"Probably best not to keep Princess Celestia waiting," he finally said gently.
Something in my heart lurched. Time may have ceased for me, but Equestria had continued to grow. Everything was so different. The way ponies spoke, acted, dressed, moved... Before, I was bowed to, heralded. Now, I was shied away from, whispered about behind raised hooves as I passed by, spoken to like a mad pony. The world outside rushed by as if everypony had someplace to be yesterday and it could not wait. This was not my Canterlot. This was not my Equestria.
The thought of going out there, next to her, watching that bright shining orb descend in the sky... I felt my eyes grow hot. When I spoke, my voice cracked in a very un-regal way.
"How does she do it? Mine sister?" I begged softly.
The guard looked at me, head askance, shifting weight again from one hoof to the other. I took a step towards him, hooves on marble the only sound in my chamber.
"Know she cannot possibly please them all? Know that some days, her sun will be too hot? Know that somewhere, somepony will suffer a stroke of heat or burn beneath their coat for staying out beneath its rays for want of enjoying the daytime Mine sister provides?" I was openly weeping now. "Day after day after day?"
The guard's eyes softened. They were warm eyes, gray, set in a long, strong muzzle of the palest violet. "May I speak frankly, milady?"
I nodded. He stepped fully into the room, looking at me permissively, and I nodded again.
"I think," he began, crossing to the bed, picking up my hoof adornments one by one and setting them on the floor, "that she accepts she is only one pony. A powerful pony, but still just one." He motioned with his hoof that I was to step into my adornments.
I complied.
"I also think," he continued, this time gently taking my necklace between his teeth and placing it around my slender neck, "that it's impossible to please everypony all the time. And Equestria knows that."
"But-"
"But nothing, Princess," he smiled.
"Thou sayest as a colt We frightened thee," I began. "Why dost thou not fear Us now?"
The guard looked me directly in my eyes, something no pony had yet to do since my return. I felt my heart flutter. Not from lust, or the beginnings of love, but from the raw and primal sensation of connecting with somepony for the first time in centuries.
"I see the Princess I am sworn to serve, distressed." His somber tone and expression gave me chills. "And I have given an oath to keep the Royal Family from all harm."
I had no words. I could only nod.
"No more tears?"
I shook my head.
"Tell Us, what is thy name, stallion?" I asked, watching as he oh so tenderly set my crown upon my brow with silent reverence.
"Honour, milady," he answered. I leaned forward and gave him the softest of nuzzles on his broad, soft muzzle.
"We thank you, Honour."
Honour did his best not to blush.
"So you'll be along then?" He asked, clearing his throat. I smiled.
"Tell Mine sister the moon shall rise like never before on this night."
Honour dropped to his chest in a deep bow. I turned back to the mirror, and looked again at that silly filly in all her royal garb. I felt the roots of my mane and the base of my tail start to tingle. All over, my coat seemed to prickle and tickle and twitch. Something... magical... was happening.
My entire life, I have been out-shadowed by the sun.
Tonight... I will shine brightly in its wake.