Celestia had no idea how long she stood there, surrounded by the debris that had once been the ceiling. At some point she had stopped crying, though she didn’t know when that had happened either. A piece of the ceiling fell and shattered with a horrible crack, finally snapping Celesta back to reality. The elements were still scattered on the ground, giving her something to do. She levitated them onto their pedestals, taking as long to do so as she could.
Looking up, Celestia realized there was something else left to do. A golden glow enveloped the moon as Celestia slowly pulled it toward the horizon, and warm sunlight bathed the ground around her once again. A few tears welled up in her eyes again. Luna’s image no longer loomed over her, yet somehow that made her feel worse. At least the sun was out again.
That accomplished, she drifted toward her and Luna’s thrones. Plopping herself down, she gazed over the destroyed throne room. Lacking the energy to do anything else, Celestia started to think.
The explosions had stopped, and there had been several minutes of silence. Aurora Glow was now hopeful that she was not going to die. She poked her head out from under the table she had been hiding under. Glancing around the servants’ quarters, she could see the fifteen or so other servant ponies still cowering under whatever cover they could find. There used to be more servants in the castle, but after an incident about a year ago, Celestia had thinned the staff considerably. One by one heads popped out from under desks and beds as everypony
“Sweet Celestia! Look at the moon!” somepony to her left cried out. Aurora glanced outside, and felt a chill come over her. There was a face seemingly carved into the moon’s surface. Whatever it meant, it wasn’t good. Without thinking she bolted out the door, looking for her princesses.
Celesta heard the hoofsteps echo down the hall. A dark thought crept into her mind, she was going to have to explain all of this to her staff. What would she say? The truth was of course the easiest answer. The problem with that though, is what everypony would think of Luna. No matter what she had done, Celestia couldn’t bear to have her sister demonized.
Aurora came bursting into the front entrance. Her horn was lit, and she looked like she expected a fight. When she saw Celestia, she visibly relaxed. Her horn dimmed, and she approached the princess. As she came forward, Celestia saw a few other ponies creep nervously into the rooms. When she was close enough to speak, Aurora bowed. She opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off.
“Gather the staff. We’re leaving.” Celestia said.
“What!?” Aurora looked up at her in confusion. “But, why? What happened to the castle, and where is Luna?”
Celestia looked down at Aurora for the first time. Doing everything she could to keep herself from crying Celestia responded, “Did you see the moon?” She watched as realization and horror dawned on her secretary’s face. “Luna’s gone, and we are leaving. Understood?” Aurora nodded dumbly, and rushed off to get everypony ready to leave.
“Did she say where we are going?” the castle cook Cherry Sorbet asked.
“No, I got the impression that she doesn’t know yet.” Aurora replied. A few other questions were shouted at her, the different ponies all desperate to be heard over one another. “He-HEY!” she yelled, “Look, I know about as much as you do right now. I’m sure she will explain what happened when she wants us to know. For now, get outside and wait for us.” Reluctantly they obeyed and all started to drift towards the front gate. Aurora heard powerful hoofsteps behind her, and turned to see Celestia approach.
“What about the elements? Are we going to leave them out like that?” she asked her princess. Celestia turned to look down at her again. Now that Celestia was lit by the sunlight from the gap in the ceiling, Aurora saw for the first time how red her eyes were.
“They don’t work without my sister anyway.”
It took them a few hours to work their way to the edge of the Everfree Forest. Celestia led the group, and the others wisely kept their questions to themselves. Many of them glanced into the foliage nervously as they walked. The Everfree had never been an overly safe place to begin with, but there had been whispers lately that the forest had become infested with strange creatures not native to the region. Nopony was sure how valid these rumors were, and that only served to terrify them more. When they reached the forest’s edge Celestia braced herself, and turned to face her subjects.
“I will now answer questions.” Immediately she was bombarded by questions.
“What happened to the castle?”
“Never mind the castle, where is Princess Luna”
“Why aren’t you been speaking with the royal we?”
“Where are we going?”
Looking at the crowd confused and terrified faces, Celestia felt a wave of guilt wash over her. As hard as it was going to be to talk about what happened, these ponies deserved answers, and keeping silent like she had been doing had only served to frighten them. Well, she was going to have to get it over with anyway.
“There is a place to the southeast called Dodge City. We’ll be staying there for the night. We been using the royal we because we have had a lot on our mind. As for the castle and our sister Luna…” Celestia took a deep breath and finished, keeping her answer short. “Luna attacked me, damaging most of the castle in the process. I defended myself with the Elements of Harmony” There was a haunting silence as the news sunk in.
“Is…is she dead?” somepony in the back asked.
“No.” Celestia responded, miraculously maintaining her composure. “She’s not dead. The spell we cast was only a banishment spell, but it will last for a very long time.” There was silence for a while, nopony knew what to say. Finally Celesta turned back around, “We have a long journey. We should keep moving.”
The group followed her, most keeping their distance. Aurora however, could not. There was still one thing she wanted to know. Speeding up her trot, she caught up to Celestia.
“Princess may ask you one more thing?” Celestia didn’t look down at her, but she did nod silently. Aurora looked down at the ground, not able to look her princess in the eye as she asked her next question.
“Do you know why she did it?” Celestia didn’t respond right away. Aurora looked up at Celestia expectantly, and felt herself die a little when she saw Celestia’s eyes watering. The princess had never expressed any emotion to the staff other than mild approval if they did something right, or irritation if they failed.
Aurora didn’t know how to respond. Her heart bled for her princess, but she wasn’t sure if it was proper for her to say something. The last thing Celestia probably wanted now was for some servant filly to pretend to know what she was going through, especially in front of the rest of the staff. Her thoughts were interrupted by a stifled sob.
“It’s my fault. She only did it because of me.” Celestia whispered, tears now streaming down her face.
Not knowing what to do, Aurora walked by her in silence.