Celestia was sitting in the throne room waiting for Luna to raise the moon and come take her place on the throne for the night shift while she went to get some sleep. She started tapping her hoof when she started getting bored and soon she started to grow angry when her sister hadn't come to relieve her, that was when she noticed that the moon was not raised into the sky either. A growl escaped the large white mares lips as she stepped down off the throne and went to the balcony where she thought her sister would be standing, she wasn't there.
'If my damned sister is still playing video games I'm going to murder her. It was supposed to be night a whole hour ago.' she thought as she stormed through the halls of the castle towards her sister's 'playroom' she slammed open the doors with her magic the audible 'CRASH' being heard by even the guards outside.
Inside of the room, nopony sat, there wasn't even the sounds of video game music playing. The room was eerily silent. It was made more frightening with the sun in the sky but nothing was bright enough to see. Luna's room stood in complete and utter darkness.
Celestia looked around lighting her horn to see deeper into the darkness that was her sister's room. She saw that Luna was no where to be seen and quickly made her way further into the living room. The doors magically closing behind her. She paid no mind to them as she made her way into Luna's actually bedroom, “Luna, dear sister? Where are you?” She said softly her voice still carrying through the room even at its low pitch.
There was no noise as Celestia stopped in the very center of her sister's bedroom. The Princess of the Night was no where to be seen though Celestia was worried because her sister was usually never missing when it was time to raise the moon into the sky.
She slowly walked to her sisters open balcony doors and sighed softly as she stepped out into the light of her glorious sun and let it bathe her it its beautiful aura as she lowered it from the sky and tried lifting the moon into its place but the moon would not budge. She could feel it pulling back against her magic but she couldn't overpower this pull. It was too strong and it was quickly draining the Solar Princess.
When she could no longer hold her own against the pull of the moon she let out a scream and let it fall. She fell to her ass and whimpered softly. “Uhh...Nghh. I can't do it. Luna help me, please..” she whispered and fell to the floor her mane falling limp under her head and not blowing in the non-existent wind anymore.
The two solar guards that usually patrolled the hallway leading up to Luna's bedroom rushed to the doors when they heard the Solar Princess scream thinking it was the scream of the Princess of the Night. One of the guards knocked on the door, "Princess Luna are you alright? We heard screaming." They grew worried when they heard no sounds coming from within after several minutes. The guard closest to the door unlocked it with a quick spell before pushing the set of double doors open.
When the guards saw that Princess Luna was no where to be found in her living room they rushed to her bedroom just to find the unconscious Princess Celestia. They rushed up to the princess and tried waking her but it was of no use as she remained unconscious. Growing worried that there was something wrong with the princess they rushed her to the royal physician.
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Elsewhere on the palace grounds a group of Nightwing ponies were trapped in the underground barracks, their only home during the harsh light of the day. It was not yet dark enough for them to go out as even thought the sun was set it was still too bright for them to step into the open. while it was comfortable and well furnished in their barracks it was still cold, dark and eerie but usually they weren't forced to stay in this long. They were starting to get edgy and their leader, Lady Skylar was getting angry at how they started swarming the doors in the common room that led to the guard training grounds and the forest. Some were trying to crush each other against the large wooden doors in an effort to get out but she kept them back with a snarl. She was their leader and the head guard of the Nightwings and they would listen and follow her orders at all costs.
She snarled at them and slowly peaked out one of the few darkened windows of the barracks to see if the moon had yet to rise and darken the sky. But no it was still below the horizon and she was not going to let her 'family' or any of her ken go out. She didn't want to lose any of them to the harsh light that was the celestial being of the sky.
When Skylar got them all to stop forcing her against the door she flared her sharp wings as she stared her friends and family down. “You will go back to your rooms in barracks and wait or I will take a great pleasure in ripping all of you idiots..” She stared at some of the younger Nightwings down and bared her overly sharp teeth at them, “...new holes..” That was her last words as she stormed off through the crowd of ponies. A door was heard slamming as she left deeper into the barracks.
Slowly the crowd of Nightwings gathered in the common room dispersed back to their separate rooms in the barracks to hide from their ferocious leader and her overbearing temper.
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When Celestia had finally gotten back some of her strength, enough to fight the pull of the moon she woke in the infirmary. She was now able to sit up again and she slowly looked around at the royal physician and nurse, both ponies stared at her with nervous smiles. Curious to why they were staring at her strangely she looked around catching a glimpse of herself in the reflection of a glass cabinet. She gasped in shock, her body seemed to shrink with the lack of her flowing pastel mane blowing in its non-existent wind. Her mane and tail had gone back to their original color being a soft shimmery pink, her mane now hung limp around her face falling over one eye.
The once proud looking alicorn now looked like she was sick due to the magical drain that she had put her body through while trying to fight the powerful pull of the moon, when her magic was mainly used to lift the sun. With the amount of magic she lost it would be a few hours before she had the strength to raise or lower the sun. The once mighty and proud Celestia was now reduced to the magic strength of a unicorn. Probably more powerful than Twilight but still a unicorn in magical strength.
She turned her head to see if anything else had changed and thankfully her wings were still there. She raised a hoof to her forehead to make sure she still had her horn and sighed when she felt the hard surface of the keratin appendage.
“Princess, are you alright?” The doctor said and moved back into the alicorn's sights, “You've been out for a couple hours now.”
The nurse walked back up to the bedside and held a glass of water within her magic for the princess, “Do you remember what happened Princess?” She asked as the alicorn drank deeply from the glass of water
“Well to tell you the truth I went looking for Luna as she hadn't raised the moon yet. When I didn't find her in her room I tried to raise the moon myself. Unfortunately since Luna's return the moon now rejects my magic and drained some of it away.” Celestia bowed her head in embarrassment at admitting that she was too weak to fight the draw of the moon's power.
Both the doctor and nurse were shocked to hear that their princess was not strong enough to fight the moon and had gotten drained of some of her power by the celestial being.
“I'll be alright in a few hours my little ponies, there is no need to worry about me. It is Luna we need to find. I'm sure the Nightwing ponies are growing restless in their underground barracks.” Celestia said as she slipped off the bed and stood tall, though her mane not flowing still looked just as regal as before.
“Of course Princess though I request that you take it easy for awhile. You did lose quite the amount of magic tonight.” The doctor said with a look of worry in his eyes. “I would suggest resting sometime tonight as it might speed up the process of you regaining your magical energy.”
“I'll get some rest as soon as I put together a search party and find Princess Luna. Right now getting the moon raised is priority.” Celestia then slowly made her way out of the infirmary with her head held high and her wings slightly spread.
Celestia was now slowly making her way back to the throne room to call a royal court and guards to organize a search party to look for her sister. She needed to tell her few trusted advisers that she would not be able to raise the moon. She knew they would fight her about this because she had raised the moon for the longest time after the Nightmare Moon incident and hadn't had any trouble. It was now time to tell them that she could no longer move both of the celestial bodies across the sky as she was growing weak in her old age.
To be Continued...
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