One Night

by ACW

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Celestia, Sad
Length: 1089

Just after Nightmare Moon is banished, Celestia wakes one night to reflect upon herself and what she did

One-shot. Celestia wakes one night to reflect on her deeds and what she did to banish Nightmare Moon.
This story's style may be a bit confusing because it's supposed to have a emo-ish mood. I tried to reflect that in the way the story is written, so please bear with the lack of proper nouns.

Published 2013-09-08 11:30:03 UTC
Last updated 2013-09-08 11:30:03 UTC

Grief

She woke with a start. Blinking the sleepiness away from her eyes, she shifted in her large bed, pushing aside with her long slender legs the blankets and the pillows which fell to the ground with barely a thud.

Looking around, she scanned her large room to search for the source of the disturbance. It was surprisingly sparse for such a large room. The fireplace crackled by one side of the room, giving off the barest of illumination to the big space. By its side was a rectangular table where her crown was placed neatly on a stand. Lying below were her horse shoes, resting from their day’s work.

Work… It has been oh so tiring managing the entire nation of Equestria. With all the damage reports and documents flying in for her verification since the attack, it had been no easier to manage both day and night. Despite the help provided by her faithful subjects, there was no easy day. Yet, today fortune smiled upon her as she had been allowed the slightest amount of time of respite. She had been able to hand over her duties for the day to her loyal captain who showed tremendous amounts of responsibilities and dedication to his princess.

Still, she could not rest easy. Being a ruler of an entire nation, how could she not worry about its welfare? How could she sleep when she knew there were still so many things to be done? There were still ponies who still had no place to live, no food, no water, or even anything to live with. There were still those whose families died in the attack and were looking for solace. How could she rest well when there were so many things to do?

Her eyes fell to another table holding another set of jewelry. Unlike her crown which was a simple gold tiara, it was a larger one that fitted 6 jewels which had the colours of the rainbow. Set in a glass case, the crown sat in the middle of the table which was directly opposite her bed. If the jewels were eyes, it would seem as if it were some sort of metallic monster staring straight at her, its jaws open wide to taunt and laugh at her while it sat comfortably on a red cushion in the glass case.

Monster… was she a monster for what she had done? Was is necessary, using the crown? They were supposed to represent a harmonious relationship, a gift bestowed by their father and mother before their departure ages ago. It was not supposed to bring divisions, but rather bring divisions together as one. They were supposed to the elements of harmony. While they were a force of good, she felt as if they were the instruments of a great evil which she had to commit. Monster…

A small gust of wind tickled her face, and stray strands of her mane flew by her face. Multi-coloured, when her mane used to be pink- a side effect of using the elements, and a permanent reminder of what she had done. Ponies commented that it looked beautiful and how they wished to have that long colourful flowing mane. But to her, she may as well have dyed her mane red with the blood of many. Nothing could compare to what she had done. This marking was not one of beauty, but of guilt.

She looked to the right, and saw that she had accidentally left the window open. The curtains by the sides of the windows swayed gently with the breeze, beckoning her to come over and look outside her room.

Sliding off noiselessly off the bed, she walked slowly to the window, and felt the wind get stronger. She squinted a little as she closed the distance.

Outside, the developing Canterlot slumbered in relative peace. She knew that the guards that had been recruited would be doing their job prowling the area and standing at their posts. Still, she couldn’t but shiver a little as she watched small dots of candle light dance from place to place. In the cold night, lanterns served as the only source of light in the dark alleys of the rising Canterlot. The moon, while glowing bright in the sky, could not give as much light as the sun.

The moon… she couldn’t help but raise her head high and look into the night sky. She didn’t have anything to do with the night sky. Yet, she was controlling it. When it was rightfully hers. The night sky was her canvas, and with her dark blue magic, she had created a master piece with dots of white which she named stars and a large disc which she gave the name of ‘moon’. It was beautiful, yet painful, like her mane. Another reminder of what she had done.

The moon was crying. Apart from the smaller dimples that was spread across its ghostly white surface, the dark silhouette of an alicorn’s head was engraved across the moon, with a dark tear drop falling from ghostly white eyes. The stars twinkled on as usual, like there was no change at all. No pony cared about the mare on the moon, and those who did only remembered her misdeeds, as a bogeyman, a curse, a monster.

But not she. She remembered the mare on the moon as her little sister. The one who she nuzzle whenever she was sad. The one who she would eat meals together with. The one who she could tease and then hear joyous laughter at the end. The one who would always be hard at work crafting her art and proudly displaying it for her to see, and eventually used the stars to display for the whole of Equestria to admire. She was never a monster, she was only misguided.

The real monster was she, standing at the window, looking at the moon cry. A single tear fell to the window sill.

“I’m so sorry Luna… I’m so sorry…” Celestia croaked as she bowed her head in sorrow.

And that night, both sisters shared a night of grief.

Author's Note

Well, please leave a comment below and let me know how this style is like! Perhaps this is not the most original idea, but I want to try to explore Celestia's true inner emotions when she gets time alone. Anyway, the inspiration for this story came from the song "Sleeping Sun" by Nightwish, go listen to it- it's a good song.