Back To The Stars

by NotanImportantPony

Chapter 2: Restitution

“I’m sorry.”

And Luna flung herself off the edge of the chapel into the gaping maw of the canyon.

Time seemed to slow as she felt her rear hooves clip the jagged edge of the chapel wall. Below her extended a gaping maw bathed in twilight’s embrace. Far below her at the bottom of the canyon Luna saw through tear stained eyes a gleaming star strewn river flowing into her moon. Sound came flying back to her, assaulting her as she fell.

The sound of the wind screaming her name grew faint as she fell away from the crumbling chapel wall. The maelstrom buffeted her wings, mane, and eyes, it brought pain; for her crimes. It relaxed her; soothing her broken body and mind. And still she fell farther into the abyss.

Her body tumbled through the air, broken and kneaded by her trials, each turn and twist brought new pain to her mind. The moonlight shone off the onyx canyon walls, reflected off scrapped pieces of armour each glinting with dangerous intent.

Her eyes widening, and her nostrils flaring, Luna brought her eyes forward and focused on one piece. A helm. A midnight blue helm that haunted her and laughed at her. With rage in her eyes Luna locked the helm in her shaky, unstable magic and crushed it, banishing the doubts and memories that thing.

Her magic dissipating, Luna blinked and shook her head as if waking from a deep dream and gazed around. She saw pieces of blackened and melted armour falling with her, she saw the alabaster moon from the peytral spinning as if it had not a care in the world. She grasped it in her magic, released a burst of crackling cyan magic; brought the crescent moon piece to her; cleared the area around her and readied her wings.

With the gently flowing river approaching fast, Luna spread her wings and locked them, the air rippled over her coat as she stayed her path. The wind ripped and tore at her flanks but Luna stayed strong, she fought against the pain and struggled to angle her wings upward. She was falling fast. Too fast.

Luna hit the water hard, her barrel taking most of the blow. She tried to give one final flap of her wings; she failed. On the upbeat her left wing cramped and moved to her side but caught on the river’s surface dragging Luna over onto its cold watery surface.

Luna struggled for a few brief seconds, her limbs flailing as she fought to extract herself from the river’s grasp. But, with her strength and magic gone; her body and mind broken; she stood no chance. Her struggling slowed, her head dipped beneath the waves as she spluttered and fought for breath but with each inhale she consumed more and more water, finally her body gave up and seized. With her mind and vision darkening, Luna fell into the yawning black abyss of unconsciousness. And as she faded away, she heard a voice coming to her as if from a great distance,

“I will not be stopped...”

---

For Celestia, the moment her sister jumped was when everything stopped. Time, heart, magic; it all ceased to exist for her and the image of Luna --her dear, sweet baby sister jumping into the abyss-- froze in her mind.

Celestia sat impeccably still for several seconds, the event of that night playing through her mind.

She ran her actions through her head. Why? What had she done to turn Luna into that-that monster?! Celestia had known that something was wrong with her little sister. But for Luna to go and do something like that to herself. To give herself over to a monster like Nightmare Moon. Celestia had never thought that her sister was ever capable of making such a dark pact. That is where she had made her mistake.

As she sat under the twinkling evening sky and tried to find reason, it actively eluded her. She tried to find hope, but it deserted her. She tried to cry, and she did.

She cried not just for herself, but for her sister who would never again see her night, who would never see new foals blossom into strong stallions and mares. She would never see the world in the daylight. Daylight...

“-while they all basked in your precious light!”

Daylight. Light.

It was all her fault. She drove her dear sister to madness. It was all her fault. How had she been so blind?

With a keening wail that shook the very foundations of the earth Celestia threw herself onto the rubble strewn ground in front of the new chapel opening and vented all her sadness and anger into the solid night air. Her horn sparked then erupted in light, her power reached out and ripped the moon from the sky, the tattered remains of her sister's touch that still clung to the moon gave Celestia strength. The moon vanished beneath the forested horizon flooding the land with a tide of darkness.

Mothers sheltered their fillies and colts as the wails of some feral beast echoed throughout the land. They cried out in fear as the moon disappeared and the starry pinpricks of light that gentley accented the night sky flickered and died. From the Badlands to the Frozen North, Celestia's anguished wails could be heard.

And after a time, the mothers, with tears streaking down their muzzles withdrew from their fillies and colts as the message in that wailing echoed throughout their souls. The howl was not from a feral beast, it was from somepony who had lost what they never knew was the best and most important thing to happen to them. And the whole of Equestria wept.

Clutching the last strands of magic, Celestia unceremoniously thrust her blazing celestial body far into the sky peeling away the darkness and banishing the ponies fears. Luna would not want the one and only Princess Celestia to wallow in self pity and think herself weak. Luna would want her dear sister to stand strong. It’s what Luna would do in Celestia’s place.

Her emotions exhausted and her body trembling, Celestia stood on marked, shaky legs and started limping through the chapel towards the daylight that streamed through the broken doors for she still had a job to do. No... Not a job. The job.

The only job of a Princess: To help and to lead, to heal and to care; all for her little ponies.