After Nightmare Moon was banished, Celestia was left to rule Equestria alone.
After Nightmare Moon was banished, Celestia was left to rule Equestria alone. Ponies had questions about what happened to Luna. With the Elements of Harmony inert, Celestia could no longer defend the kingdom without help. How could she keep her kingdom together without Luna? How could she go on without her sister?
The story of Celestia's first few years ruling in Luna's absence.
A deep sense of foreboding woke Celestia up. Her eyes shot open and she attempted to leap from her bed, but was too slow. Icy water splashed down on her head, ran down her neck, and soaked her sheets. She sat gasping for air as laughter filled her room.
“Oh dearest sister, hate me if thou must, but thou were refusing to awaken!” Celestia stared back at her sister, rage in her eyes. Luna chuckled setting the now empty glass onto Celestia’s nightstand. “It is morning! Thou should be pleased, for thy sister has made vittles!” With that statement Luna walked out of Celestia’s room, leaving her to clean up.
Celestia could barely breathe. The fall had knocked the wind from her lungs, and the burning sensation coming from her injured chest left her dizzy. There was nothing else for her to do though. She needed to get up. Putting her hooves beneath her, she rose up on shaking legs.
“Oh dear sister, I am sorry, but you have given me no choice but to use these.” Celestia’s voice still shook slightly, but her decision was made. She turned to the front of the throne room, her horn glowing. With a hiss of steam a hidden compartment opened. Machinery clanged as a large pedestal rose from the floor. Above each of the pedestal’s five arms hovered a gemstone with a sixth hidden in an orb that rested atop of the central pedestal. The Elements of Harmony sat waiting for her.
Before she had time to realize what she was doing, Celestia had taken off and flown up to the elements. One by one they rose up, lifted by her magic. Celestia hesitated for a moment, but only a moment, before release the sixth from its cradle. The six gems surrounded her and began to spin at a blinding speed. With the elements in tow Celestia rose into the night sky.
Any anger Celestia still felt died as she walked into the dining hall. Laid out in front of her usual seat was a fairly impressive spread of food; oat muffins, hay bacon, toast. Celestia’s mouth began to water. Naturally Luna hadn’t bothered to wait for her, and was already diving into a bowl of oats. Celestia noticed that she and Luna were the only ones in the dining hall. Celestia sat down beside her sister, and poured herself a glass of juice.
“This all looks wonderful Luna, but where are the servants?” she asked gesturing to the dozens empty seats. Luna wasn’t the most social of ponies. She had a habit of dismissing her serving staff when there wasn’t much royal work to do so that she could have “some peace and quiet.” Her sister tried to answer her with a mouth full of oats, but found herself coughing uncontrollably. Celestia chuckled, “I would have thought a mare as old as thee would have learned how to eat by now.”
Luna smiled back at her, and cleared her throat. “I sent the servants home after thee went to bed. We don’t really anypony to babysit us. We have thee for that good sister!” Celestia laughed with her sister before stuffing a slice of toast into her mouth. She was about to say something else when she noticed that Luna had stopped eating.
“Is something wrong?” Luna didn’t answer her. Celestia frowned, “Luna, why did you really send the servants home?” Celestia said calmly, barely noticing that she hadn’t used the royal we. Luna opened her mouth to answer, but said nothing. She just bowed her head and look down at the table. Her shoulders began to shake, and Celestia felt her heart sink as she realized that her sister was crying. She rose from her seat, knelt next to Luna, and wrapped a wing around her sobbing sister. Luna leaned her head into her sister’s chest and welcomed Celestia’s embrace.
“They hate me.” Luna chocked out. “They love you, but they cannot stand me.” Celestia was about to tell Luna how ridiculous that was, but Luna kept talking. “I overheard two of our servants in the halls. They were upset that they were assigned to assist me.” Luna briefly broke down sobbing, but found her voice again, “They said that they had wanted to serve Equestria’s true princess, to serve you. I-I got angry. I got really angry. I told them to leave, I told all of them to leave.
Celestia was mentally fuming, she’d be sure to punish the ponies who had insulted her sister as soon as she could. For now though, she made sure to keep her anger in check as she whispered to her sister. “Luna, you shouldn’t let the words of a few ponies hurt you so. You do a wonderful job as princess.”
Luna looked up at her sister, eyes a burning red. “These weren’t the words of ‘a few ponies,’ and you know that. Ponies have never respected me the way they do you! I work just as hard as you do, I don’t understand why they still hate me.” With that Luna once again descended into a fit of sobs. Celestia just held her tight, unsure of what to say.
Celestia could see the figure that was once her sister flying just in front of her. Nightmare Moon gathered her magic, and Celestia readied the Elements of Harmony. As Nightmare moon sent a magic blast towards Celestia, a massive beam of energy fired from the elements. The two beams met, and the element’s magic overpowered Nightmare Moon’s. Celestia could hear her sister scream as the blast overtook her. The stream of energy consumed her sister and carried her into the night sky. As it impacted with the moon, a terrible screech filled the night.
Looking up at the moon with tear blurred eyes, Celestia watched as her sister’s visage formed on the surface. Celestia slowly sank until her hooves were once again on the ground. Her magic gave out, and the elements clattered to the ground. Celestia hardly noticed. All her mind was focused on that moon.
I’m so sorry Luna
Celestia lifted Luna’s head with her wing, making her sister look her in the eye. “Luna, it does not matter what the other ponies think of you. I respect you. You don’t just work as hard as I do, you work harder. To be honest, I have no idea how I would run this kingdom without your assistance. Even if I somehow could rule this kingdom alone, I wouldn’t want to. Without you around, all the joy would leave my life. I love you Luna.”
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.
