Chapter 1
Celestia walked calmly through the halls of Canterlot Castle, mentally going over the events of the day in her head as she prepared to lower the sun. As usual, it had been a long and tiring day, and she was looking forward to a good night's rest. She silently thanked the stars that Luna and Twilight between them had found a way to rebalance the schedules so that neither Celestial Sister was working themselves into exhaustion just to spend a little time together at Dusk and Dawn. Even so, some of the noble's bickering was more than she could take sometimes, and she found herself less frequently smiling beatifically and more often glowering. A whisper in her mind said that wasn't entirely intentional, but she pushed it to the back of her mind.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she passed her sister's room and heard a choked sob. Concerned, she turned to the door and, noticing it was partially open, she gently nudged it open the rest of the way. "Lulu?" she asked, her voice full of worry.
Luna looked up, lifting her face from her pillow. "Tia," she replied softly, her eyes full of unshed tears.
Without thought, Celestia moved to wrap a wing around her sister. "Luna, what's wrong?" she asked, trying to offer comfort.
Luna sighed. "What's always wrong?" she asked, her sorrow tinged with resentment. "The times may change, but the ponies don't. The nobles still haven't accepted me, most of the country either sees me still as Nightmare Moon or doesn't even recognize me...or both." This last was said bitterly, practically spat. "Last night I journeyed to Manehatten for my duties there, and the citizens would not step aside to grant me access to public conveyance when I was too tired to fly to the station."
Celestia struggled to hold in a laugh. "You couldn't get a taxi?"
Luna nodded. "As if wings and horn together were not enough to be recognized as royalty, the commoner even insulted my flank when I tried to get him to recognize my Cutie Mark." Her spite turned to sorrow. "But then, when I identified myself...he fled Nightmare Moon, rather than bow to Luna..." She buried her face in her pillow again. "Just like always," she whispered.
"It can't be all that bad," Celestia struggled to reassure her, although her statement lacked certainty. "You've told me much of how fond the foals are of you."
"As they always are," Luna whispered, starting to weep once more. "As it has always been. When ponies are young, they fear the dark, and the monsters that might hide in it. I step in, protect them from the bogeymen that haunt their dreams, become their champion..." She smiles a little. "For a few years, they sing my praises and raise prayers to me, and I remember their names. When I first began, I hung a star in the sky for each and every one of them, and told them which was theirs, to show my eye watched over them." Her frown returns. "But then they grow up. Their fears become less fanciful and more esoteric. Less simple, harder to address. I can help them less and less...and over time, they forget the monsters that once haunted their nightmares...and the one who protected them from their fears."
Celestia stared down at her sister, unable to find anything to say to reassure her. "...Luna..."
"And if that wasn't bad enough," Luna replied, "when I tried to get them to remember me, I failed as well. I became the Nightmare they feared...and after a thousand years, I was all but forgotten. Had you not assigned Twilight Sparkle those books to read over the summer, knowing she would read them in the first two weeks despite telling her she could read them over the whole season, no one would have even recognized Nightmare Moon upon her return. ...forgotten again, just like every other time..."
Celestia felt her heart catch in her throat. Leaning down, she nuzzled Luna, at a loss for words.
Luna sighed. "I had thought I was used to it. I had thought times had changed enough that I could step out of the shadows...but they haven't..." She slowly got to her hooves. "I'm going to clean myself up," she softly spoke. "It wouldn't do to raise the moon looking such a mess."
As she turned to her bathroom, however, she was caught in a tight, warm embrace. "I never forgot you, Lulu," Celestia whispered, clinging to her sister tightly.
Luna briefly nuzzled into Celestia. "I know..." After a time, she was released, and headed to her bathroom to wash her face.
Rising to her hooves, Celestia turned to head for the balcony. She knew well what Luna spoke of. While times changed, history had a tendency to repeat itself. No matter how much she wished things would change...as the sun rose, the moon set. And the moon shone only at night.
Reaching the balcony, Celestia raised her eyes to the sun before seizing it with her magic, carefully lowering it beyond the horizon. Had any ponies been allowed to observe, they might have noticed a sizzle of stone and metal from where she had firmly planted her hooves, and a slight wavering from the heat.
And as the sun set, the moon rose.
This was a thought that had been on her mind since before Luna's return. The cycle repeats endlessly, unchanging...unless it was changed by force. Inside her mind, she went through the habit she had unwittingly ingrained in her student. She went over a mental checklist.
The foes from their long life, the old ones who had remained to this cycle. Discord was reformed, more or less, befriended by Fluttershy, Twilight, and the others. Sombra had been obliterated, and the Crystal Empire was ruled fairly by Cadence and Shining Armor, the Crystal Heart once more casting its aurora over the northern sky.
Luna had always been an emotional Princess, lacking the discipline to be an effective administrator on her own. Twilight had unrivaled organizational skills, went out of her way to help others...and her natural humility would make her quite comfortable standing in Luna's shadow, helping from behind the scenes.
Awareness of Luna's abilities had been slowly and carefully spread as an urban legend, and this generation's foals knew her presence in their dreams to be real. Within a few decades, the voting populace would feel they owed more to Luna than to Celestia.
Celestia's own reputation had slowly but surely been chipped away. What duties she still saw to were either excessively showy or done completely out of sight. When it came to threats to the kingdom, she sent her student rather than attend to them herself, while she had been recorded in the newspapers as being quite self indulgent. It had been quite the effort getting Featherweight into the palace secretly, and staging that photo with the cake. And on top of that, the one battle she faced herself, she was soundly defeated in one blast. Already, rumors about her growing weaker - especially in comparison to how strong and energetic Luna showed herself to be - were spreading.
As she finished lowering the sun below the horizon, she let out a breath she'd been holding, taking deep breaths as her body shuddered. Her hoof shoes bubbled a bit as she struggled to retain her equanimity and calm.
Only two things left on her checklist. The first, to teach Twilight the sun spells. The second, to wait a century or so to be sure everything was firmly in place, so the last shake up wouldn't send the country toppling. She hoped she would last that long.
"Not this time, Luna," she whispered, her eyes shut tight. When they opened, orange flame had consumed her corneas, and her irises had turned red, her pupils narrowed to slits. "This time...it's my turn to fall...to be forgotten..." She blinked, her eyes returning to normal before returning to her duties.