On the eve of banishing Nightmare Moon, Celestia must now begin to come to terms with exactly what she has done... How will she Fare?
This story is based around the time of Nightmare Moon's banishment, and explores how Princess Celestia deals with her emotions and her country without the aid of her Sister. Maybe she'll be ok? maybe not, only time will tell.
Note: This is only my second story, and I haven't written anything like this for a while, so Support and guidance would be hugely appreciated. The first chapter I wrote after watching "Lullaby for a Princess", and probably finished in a few hours of non stop writing, I have proof read it a good few times but I'm certain there may be a few Mistakes in there, let me know if there are.
The world stood still that day. Everyone looked around at each other with terror in their eyes… watching… wondering, what might happen next to them on this day, that would go down in history as legend.
The citizens of Canterlot who weren’t cowering under the nearest park bench or table in the busy streets of the capital, was holding onto the nearest person to them for reassurance.
There were however those with their own Idle curiosity thinking that if they turned their tired and tear stained eyes to the sky, they might see the one who had guided them through thick and thin these last few hundred years.
The one that they wanted to see however, to tell them that everything was alright again, would never show her face that day.
Princess Celestia the controller of the Sun, deity of the land of Equestria, was in no mood to be praised, right now… she couldn’t even bear the look of her own reflection in the puddle of tears that she had made. Her mane was a mess. She was bruised, battered and bleeding from multiple wounds across her face, legs and sides. Amongst the broken pieces of stained glass strewn all over the floor of the cold stone room, not even the dim torchlight could even bring the faintest comfort of warmth to her.
Princess Celestia Lay curled up at the base of the alter of the Elements of Harmony. The most treasured defence of Equestria.
As she gazed at the sixth element, (the element of magic) she observed as it’s vibrant purple colour began to drain, slowly at first, starting from the tips of the six points around its starry shape, and gradually getting faster.
Celestia pounced on it like a crazed cat, panicked, and picked the element up, cradling it in her hooves delicately.
“NO...NO NO NO NO NO NO!” She cried as the last of it’s colour came to a focal point in the center of the precious gemstone. Looking closer with her blurred teary eyes, she watched as the element began to crack where the focal point of the elements energy lay causing a purple aura to seep out of the gap and drop onto the floor where it dissipated leaving behind only a blackened shell.
Terror gripped the Solar Monarch at this point, eyes darting around for something, anything that could fix this. She finally looked up at the horn protruding from her forehead and spawned an Idea.
Using all her concentration, she pointed said horn at the element and charged up a spell, searching deep down for what shreds of kindness, hope and affection she could find to maybe re-kindle the life of the Element of Magic, the most powerful of the elements in the arsenal.
When the energy in her golden aura had come to a critical moment Celestia closed her eyes, concentrating hard, a bead of sweat making its way down her brow, she finally, gently touched the tip of her horn to the element, allowing her magic to flow into it as if she were giving a dying patient CPR.
“Please” she whispered “Work…”
The element responded, there was a violent flash of light, sending the startled ruler backwards, crashing against the same altar she had started from.
The alter shook from the impact, sending the other elements crashing to the floor where they all in turn shattered into a thousand shards each.
Celestia could only stare, as time seemed to slow down, she named each one as it touched, paused and then exploded in a colorful light show making her pink mane wisp behind her as if it were smoke.
Kindness, Loyalty, Honesty, Generosity and lastly, the one that broke her heart…
Laughter.
Celestia was engulfed in a rainbow of colour that washed past her caressing her mane stinging her still bleeding wounds as they travelled the length of her form like each one were punishing her that little bit more than she needed at that moment in time.
Begrudgingly she turned, no expression on her face but a mask of utter hopelessness, her mouth ever so slightly agape, and watched as the rainbow wafted past her eventually dissipating as it drifted out of the shattered window above the door to the chamber and out into the cold air.
That was the crippling blow, Celestia stood shaking from the effort and the contained rage, her lower lip began to tremble, her eyes squinted as fresh water came from her eyes and cascaded down her face, she looked back to the cursed altar and chose it as the target of her anger.
“YOU!” she snarled, bearing her pearl white teeth to the inanimate object.
“HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN!” She advanced on her target slowly, a maniacal look in her eyes.
“YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GUIDE HARMONY, NOT LET IT FALL APART!”
“YOU PROMISED ME PEACE! YOU PROMISED A BRIGHTER FUTURE!”
Celestia gulped for air, burning her lungs, crying herself hysterical “YOU WERE THE ALLY TO OUR NATION”.
Turning in a flash she reared and bucked the stone with all her might, smashing it as if it were made of glass.
Breathing hard, eyes and lungs burning, the broken mare lifted her wearisome face to the sky, as it stared back at her, taunting her, and let out a blood curdling scream, not caring who heard her tattered cries here in the depths of the castle grounds.
All she cared was that her sister, Luna, the only one who ever knew her, loved her and she had loved back, was gone without a trace and she had only herself to blame, her own foolish, blind self.
Eventually Celestia heard a sound that made her ears perk forwards. Looking down at the floor between her hooves, Celestia notices a piece of the shattered glass window that had been broken earlier.
Like a dagger in her heart, Irony was a cruel mistress this night, the shard depicted an alabaster mare with a multi-colored mane elegant as the northern lights, Golden tiara proudly adorning her head, wings flared above her head as the character beamed down her nose back at Celestia.
She kicked the shard, making a distinct sound of her metal clad hooves contacting glass. It skimmed away across the floor into the furthest reaches of the room. She made a mental note to destroy it later.
Finally energy spent, all breath gone from her slender frame and not a tear left to give. The Monarch looked away in disgust and turned. Trying to take a tentative step forward to get away from this mess, she tripped, stumbled and collapsed in the corner of the now dark chamber.
With no defences of tactics left up her sleeves, Celestia succumbed to the weight of her treacherous eyelids, feeling her head fall to the floor, causing her to drown in the depths of slumber.
This night had been a night of hurt, fear and sadness.
Celestia Winced, a sudden chill rushing up her back. She shuddered and clenched her closed eyes. She wished she could feign ignorance to her surroundings, ignorance was bliss, It allowed one to create their own world, start again, start a fresh where it was impossible to make mistakes.
Celestia knew what day it was, her connection to the sun meant that she had a perfect and instantaneous grasp of time. This morning though, she would have preferred it to simply be a figment of her imagination, nothing more than a nightmare that she could ignore.
Gritting her teeth she rolled over turning her back on the air that dared enter her chambers and try to drag her away from her slumber.
As Celestia rolled over, her sheets folded over themselves trapping the Solar Monarchs right hind leg in a tight grip that merely made her twist further with frustration. Rolling over again Celestia found herself released, but now re-united with the unwelcome intruder from earlier who now had an ally… The sun as it delicately peeked above the horizon for the first time that day.
Celestia cursed under her breath.
Facing defeat in her efforts and a toss up of being between a rock and hard place, Celestia finally gave up. Huffing she blew some random strands of her mane out of her face and cracked one eye carefully open to meet the day as it dawned.
With a gasp, she quickly closed it again due to the burning sensation that resulted. Why oh why had she left the window open last night? Her thin silk curtain did nothing to stop the light and clearly was the source of her original assailant this morning.
Grunting, Celestia lifted her head from her pillow and peered around her room with squinted eyes.
As her tired eyes began to focus, the solar monarch began to take in her surroundings. All the walls were a polished marble colour with an off white tiled floor. Her main Prench floor to ceiling window on her right hoof side had thin white marble columns either side with gold and purple accents slowly twisting up the length, beyond said window was her personal balcony, made up of the same pristine marble and adorned with polished golden railings, it was situated just so, that one could observe all the regions of her kingdom, including the newest settlement in the distance. Ponyville.
To the left of that and facing the room was her bespoke carved dressing table made up of some of the finest ancient oak wood complete with a white marble surface and golden framed mirror. On the opposite side of the room and on the left of the bed chamber entrance was a ponyquin, differing from most in that this was only made up of the head and shoulders, on which Celestia’s golden regalia sat patiently waiting for their owner to start the day. Her golden metal shoes sat at the foot of her bed aligned so that they could be slipped on any the closest convenience when they were needed.
Moving to look further to her left Celestia looked toward the tall bookcase that stood on the far left wall from where she was. To the untrained eye it would look uninteresting, save for some of the historical novels and transcripts that sat upon it. But little did anyone fortunate enough to even be in this room know that behind this bookcase which when activated, opened outwards as two doors to reveal Celestia’s private bathroom. Originally it had not been hidden away so easily, But Celestia had come to find that over time, the serenity of being able to hide away in a sound proofed room and being left with nothing but a hot bath and her thoughts, was the perfect way to unwind after a difficult day of answering to the everyone who entered through the doors of the grand throne room.
Lighting up her horn, the solar mare removed the constricting bed covers and slid off of her grand king size bed. Oh how she would have preferred to stay under the sheets on her cloud infused mattress and stare at the constellations painted on the ceiling of her room, but alas as always there was work to be done.
“I swear If Silver Quill comes to me today even mentions tonight’s festivities I will personally have him flogged”
Celestia grinned at that prospect, She had told that stuck up noble plenty of times that today of all days of the year was not one that she wanted to celebrate, no, Instead short of throwing him out of the throne room, she had instead had to remind him that tonight was a night of reflection for her, and not to trouble her again on the matter.
Originally he had been about the same as any other noble pony, But shortly after that fateful day one year ago exactly, there had been uproar amongst the people. With Celestia a no show and the guard un-instructed on what to do in such a situation, Canterlot had ended up in chaos, including but not limited to looting, violence and general panic from the public. The best that the guard had managed to do was limit the destruction in the center of the city, starting by putting out the flames of some of the burning buildings that had been set alight by the lower classes who had taken the opportunity to revolt about their lack of support from the crown.
To top it off, in the Absence of the now Banished Princess Luna, her personal guard were under direct accusation from the nobles for having allegedly “tainting” the Lunar Diarch into her darkened path. The reasoning? Pure racism.
Luna due to her nocturnal manner’s had used a guard consisting of bat ponies or “Thestrals” these creatures resembled normal ponies in many ways however differed in their leathery bat like wings and front predatory looking fangs which in actual fact were there due to their preference to eating fruit.
Quickly rumors had spread about what actually happened that night, and Celestia for months on end had been working her best to counter the accusations and crush this divided nature that was slowly gripping the nation. And joy of joy’s, where had it all begun? with that purist of them all… Silver Quill.
He was a Stallion of average height, with a white coat and deep blue mane and tail, highlighted by multiple silver streaks down the length of both. Silver Quill was responsible for a large part of the news and reporting groups in Canterlot.
Short of his promise to remain faithful to the Princess by reporting important manners to her and releasing regular information of what was happening around the city to her subjects, he had instead begun to let his bigotry and power go to his head, he had grown cynical in his time as a noble and it was clear from his reports.
With nothing direct to counter this issue, the rumors had spread to the public and with every Stallion and Mare in the city clawing at her golden clad hooves, Celestia had been forced to disband the Lunar guard, for fear of violence turning on their kind.
As Celestia let her musing’s pass, she continued into her bathroom for a particularly long bubble bath to try and steady her nerves for the troubling day ahead of her.
