A Tale Of A Thousand Winters
One banished, one left behind
Princess Celestia sat on her throne, her eyes red from tears and her mind racing. 'The nobility will want an explanation for Luna's banishment, as will the general populous, lest it seem like I had banished her in some mad grab for power. There are also our allies that had favored Luna's diplomacy to my own, I will have to meet with them soon to explain the situation. The monsters of the night that she held at bay will also have to be dealt with.'
As the analytical part Celestia's mind whirled, poring over the changes and repercussions because of what had transpired that evening, while another part of her mind continued to grieved over those same events. 'Why Luna? What caused this? Had I been such a poor sister that I did not see your discontent right before my own eyes? So blind that I would lose sight of my own flesh and blood?'
As her thoughts continued to flicker between duty and grief a knock came from the entryway door. “Princess Celestia, Princess Luna?” the door was tentatively pushed open by Silver Tray, one of the court butlers. “I and several other members of the staff had- what is all of this!” Silver exclaimed. The debris from the battle, large chunks of masonry from the hole in the ceiling, tattered pieces from the banners, and a few torches that had been shaken from their holders, littered the floor. “It looks as though an Ursa had stomped through here,” he said, head swiveling as he attempted to take in all the damage.
Celestia gave him a small sad smile, “You had a message for me Silver Tray?”
“Erm, yes. Yes I did,” his gaze now fixing on Celestia. “We, that is to say just about everyone in the castle, myself included, had been wondering why the moon had risen so early and for such a short amount of time. Also Merry Bell said that she was up in one of the towers and had seen you fighting some dark alicorn, and...” his eyes flickered over to the empty thrown underneath the torn evening blue. “Your majesty, where is Princess Luna?”
It took everything Celestia had to not begin weeping again at the mention of her missing sister. She took a moment to make sure that she was still composed and then answered, “I will let you and the rest of our kingdom know in due time. For now I need some time to rest, as I expect you were not the only ones who may have questions, and I must prepare myself to answer those questions.”
“Did, did something happen to Princess Luna? Was it that dark alicorn, did it harm her, is she alright?” Silver Tray's question came rapidly, his tongue almost tripping over itself as he asked them.
Now Celestia's voice hardened with authority, and a hint of anger, as she snapped at the pony, “Silver Tray, I order you to remove yourself from this room immediately, or I will remove you from it myself.”
The small gray serving pony flinched, and hastily bowed and backed towards the door, narrowly missing several of the chunks of debris, “O-Of course my Princess, I shall be gone p-post-haste.”
“And tell the rest of the rest of the castle that I am not to be disturbed for the next several hours, is that clear?”
“Of course your majesty, of course,” and with that, the serving pony closed the door, and the room was quiet once more.
Princess Celestia held on to that flicker of anger for a moment more, before it melted back into sorrow. For a few moments she tried to plan, to organize, and prepare herself for the task ahead of her, but found she didn't have the strength to do so. Instead she hung her head and let the sorrow steal over her once more.
After several hours had passed Princess Celestia emerged from her throne room, head held high. Outside two guards stood on either side of the entrance dressed in their armor, pikes laying across their shoulders. She had heard them every now and again when they turned away other curious members of her court so that she might have time to recuperate. She thanked them with a small nod of her head, which they accepted by standing a bit straighter. “You have my appreciation for performing your duty is such trying times,” Celestia said. “Now I need you to deliver a message to the rest of the castle.”
“What is the message, your highness?” Strong Guard asked, his gaze never moving from the hall in front of him.
“I need you to tell the rest of the castle that I will be making an announcement in the central courtyard within the hour. I would like for as many of the castle's residences to be in attendance as possible.”
“Of course, your Majesty. Tin Armour!” the second guard stood a hair taller in attention. “You take the west half of the castle, I'll take the east.”
“Sir!” the younger colt answered, and immediately trotted off with his commanding officer to go spread their message. Celestia watched them go for a moment, then turned and flew through the gaping hole in the roof. She spiraled higher and higher over her, no, their castle, no matter what had transpired on this day it was still their castle. She looked down at the castle below, noting the damage that her brief, but intense, battle with Lu- with Nightmare Moon, had caused. The bridge that crossed a large ravine had been destroyed, and there were large gashes in a few of the towers exposing the interior of the castle.
Celestia flew by each tower, quickly examining the gashes to see if anypony had gotten caught in the crossfire from their battle. Fortunately, there were no signs that anypony had been severely harmed in the blasts, if at all. Once sure of this, Celestia turned her attention to the setting sun, which was only an hour or two away from disappearing behind the horizon.
Taking one last deep breath, Celestia flew down to the courtyard at the center of the castle, and landed on one of the balconies that overlooked the courtyard where ponies had begun to assemble. The ponies that were gathered below looked up at their princess, awaiting a proclamation. When it became evident that Celestia wasn't going to say anything the other ponies went back to talking among themselves, stealing glances at their princess every now and again.
As Celestia looked around at her ponies the undertone of worry in their conversations became evident, even if she wasn't quite able to make out any of the words. Many of the ponies were shifting uneasily from hoof to hoof, and her pegasus servants and acquaintances wings were twitching, their feathers becoming ruffled. She wished she could end this uneasiness that had settled over her courtyard, but she restrained herself. Many of her subjects and friends that resided in her castle had yet to arrive, and this was news that she wished for as many of her ponies to hear first hand as possible.
So she waited on her balcony and watched as more ponies drifted into the courtyard, and as the setting sun drew closer to the horizon. Once the sun was almost on the horizon, ready to set for the eve, and most of her subjects had gathered in the courtyard below, Celestia began her speech. “My subjects, on this day I bear dreadful news.” As the princess addressed the courtyard with the Royal Canterlot Voice, everypony grew silent in the courtyard, eyes and minds focused solely on Celestia.
“Earlier today my beloved sister, Princess Luna,” Celestia paused. Even now she was uncertain as to what had truly befallen her sister. After a moment she decided to simply tell them what she believed had happened. “She was changed into a creature that called itself Nightmare Moon. It is my hope that it was by some dark magic that this occurred, though I am uncertain as to if it was truly the cause.” Celestia paused again, her mind trying to suss out any details as to what might have befallen her sister. The ponies bellow began to whisper to one another as the pause stretched on. She shook her head, as if to brush away those thoughts, and continued her speech, “What ever the cause was, this Nightmare Moon soon made her intentions clear, to usurp ruler-ship of the land, and to plunge it into an eternal night.” The whispers began again, louder this time. Celestia held up her hoof for silence, and it was immediately given to her. “I would not allow this, and as some of you had seen, I fought with this creature in hopes that I might be able to subdue it.
“This was not the case, and I was defeated soon after.” A few ponies gasped at this. “In my desperation I then acted rashly and with little thought. I called upon the Elements of Harmony to help me in my struggle. I did not know that I would be unable to wield them as I and my sister had many years ago to defeat the tyrant Discord. Instead of subduing her, their powers banished her from the land of Equestria, and imprisoned her into her own moon.” Celestia paused for a third time, but instead of whispers her subjects kept and uneasy quiet.
Celestia looked to the horizon and saw that the sun was already at the edge of the sky. She had hoped that she would have been able to fly to Canterlot, and inform the nobility of what had happened before the evening came. Unfortunately time had forced her hoof. “Now with my sister gone, the task of raising the moon must fall to me,” and with that Celestia lit her horn and lowered the sun below the horizon.
Everypony watched the opposite horizon, their collective breaths held. Slowly, the pale form of the moon rose up into the sky, but not the moon that they knew. Instead of the nearly flawless white sphere that had graced Equestria skies for countless millenniums, a moon marred by the dark outline of an alicorn mare ascended into the night sky. Ponies pointed to the moon and murmur frightened words. Celestia let the go of the spell, and stumbled a bit. The effort of guiding both celestial bodies onto their courses taking more effort than she had expected.
After regaining her composer Celestia addressed her subjects once more, “This is a dawn of a new age, from this day forth I will do everything in my power to bring back my sister, but until then I, Princess Celestia, will shoulder my sister's responsibilities. My subjects will not suffer for the mistakes I have made, this I promise you.”
And with that Celestia flew off of the balcony toward Canterlot to deliver the news.
