Celestia slowly walked along the ashen path, remembering better times. In recent days she had been visiting her little sanctuary more often then in the past decade alone. The pain of recent events still plagued her as she continued along the path. Her weakness during those past events still saddened her.
After several more hours of walking the path in this fire-drenched landscape, she arrived at her destination. A wall of flame spread out for some distance on either side of the path. Set into it was a simple looking barrier, one that she herself had made in ages long past. Celestia strode forward and ignited her horn. The barrier opened and for a brief moment, all was white.
As color returned, Celestia found herself standing on a worn stone path with grass covered meadows to either side. Pausing for a moment to allow herself to relax, Celestia then continued on. A short distance from the entrance she found herself at a little gazebo with a small glass looking panel floating by one wall. She made her way over to a small bench that sat opposite the panel and sat down.
After taking a moment to collect her thoughts, a dim glow emerged from her horn. The panel was slowly brought to life. Images quickly passed by, centuries at a time whisked by in seconds. A minute later, the images slowed to a stop.
Celestia remembered this day well. It was when she first laid eyes on Twilight Sparkle at her School for Gifted Unicorns. The young fillies shock at seeing her princess and the following joy at her being accepted as Celestia's personal student were quite amusing to watch. Smiling at the fond memory, she progressed the images further.
Several hours had passed since arriving and Celestia was nearing more current events. Discord's reform, Twilight's coronation, Tirek's escape and defeat. All of it went passing by quickly. She was finally arriving at the final point in her memories, and the most painful.
Displayed on the panel was a still image of Twilight as she last looked. Her expression was one of complete horror and fear. Tears came unbidden to Celestia as she slowly allowed the events to play out. Celestia's screaming at Twilight and her friends to run, Twilight and her friends unable to bring themselves to abandon her, Chrysalis backing away with terror in her eyes at what was happening. And then all was fire.
Some time later, Luna walked in to see Celestia curled up on the ground, crying and muttering "I'm sorry..." to herself over and over. Luna gave a sad sigh and walked over to her sister's side. Laying down and draping a wing over her to give her some comfort, Luna said, "It will be OK, sister." Although Luna, herself, didn't believe those words.
Celestia sat up and turned her head toward Luna. The pain at what happened was evident on her face. Her eyes were red and puffy, her fur was matted down in various places from her tears, and her expression was one of somepony who had just lost everything.
Luna winced at the look before Celestia spoke, "It will never be OK, Luna. Not after what I have done."
Luna quickly rose up and faces Celestia, "It is not your fault!" Luna nearly shouted with more force then needed, "It was that damn bug's fault.! She doomed herself by returning and doom our own ponies with her actions."
Celestia turned her gaze to the ground and softly spoke, "It was still at least partially my fault for not having better control."
Luna sighed and sat down before speaking, "No one could have predicted what her poison would do to you. But you need to stop blaming yourself for it."
An uneasy silence settled over the garden for a time. Eventually Luna got back on her hooves and began walking toward the barrier. Stopping just before it, she turned and sadly said, "Come on 'Tia. We need to get back and the our ponies know what has happened."
After a weak sigh and a nod, Celestia rose to her hooves and followed Luna out of the barrier.
Back on Equus, the sisters traveled to the nearest city that was untouched by the event. After entering town hall and speaking with the mayor, they set up a meeting to announce what had happened. The time and place set, the sisters took their leave. Renting a nearby hotel for the night, the sisters eventually got to bed.
The following morning brought a massive crowd to the town hall of ponies with questions about what had happened. Nopony had been able to enter the central part of Equestria either by land or air. Many were worried about what was happening over there and wanting to see relatives and friends that were seemingly stuck there. In a rough ring about 100 miles out in any direction from Canterlot, there was a wall of what looked to be molten rock.
The princesses exchanged glances with each other and prepared themselves. Stepping out onto the stage, Luna quickly raised a hoof to stall any questions that might be asked. Celestia then approached the podium and began speaking,
"Greeting my little ponies. I'm here to tell you all of the events that took place last week in the heart of Equestria. As many of you are aware, the central area of Equestria is currently inaccessible to everyone at this time. The cause of this was a magical solar discharge that originated in Canterlot. On Thursday of last week, Queen Chrysalis attempted to attack and take over Canterlot using a brute force attack rather then the stealth methods she had used before.
"After a drawn out fight between myself, Luna, the Element Bearers, and Chrysalis' forces, she managed to get by my defenses and land a bit on me. This bite, while not very painful, did inject me with a toxin that caused me to lose control of my magic. The resulting effects caused my magic to run wild."
Celestia was trying very hard to avoid breaking down on stage, but could no longer keep up her stoic appearance. She collapsed to the stage and began crying. Luna rushed over to comfort her as best as she could. Celestia then pushed Luna toward the podium, indicating that she should continue the retelling of events.
With a sad expression, Luna rose and made her way to the podium. The crowd was silent and in shock of seeing their ruler in tears. Luna tapped the podium with a hoof and began speaking,
"The sun's energy in Celestia was violently released then. Whenever my sister would lose control before, as rare as it was, she would simply teleport to the sun itself and allow the power to be released there. But with the poison from Chrysalis affecting her, she could not control her magic enough to allow her to teleport. The release happened in the middle of the palace's throne room and spread out from there at unimaginable speeds. In the span of about 30 seconds, the blast reached roughly 100 miles out in all directions from Canterlot."
Luna paused in her speech then to fight back some tears of her own. Many of the ponies still didn't seem to grasp the severity of what has happened, but several were beginning to understand, as indicated by their tears. The hardest part to tell was next. She hoped the ponies would not take it too hard.... but that was probably hoping for too much. Thus, she continued with her speech,
"Everything within 100 miles from Canterlot is gone. The remnants of the energies released will make the area uninhabitable for quite some time, but will eventually clear. The loss is great for everyone and we feel the pain as much as any of you. I lost friends and ponies whom I had come to know and respect in my time back from my banishment all those years ago. But my sister lost so much more.
"Twilight Sparkle and the other Element Bearers were in the palace during the event. None of them were able to get away in time."
Celestia's cries rose in volume then and many in the crowd were now joining her with their tears. They cried for those lost; loved ones, family, friends, ...and heroes. This was a tragic time in Equestria. One that the passage of time would never truly heal.