~A story told~
Celestia stood on her balcony, surveying Canterlot with a smile on her face. The night was alive with ponies, some walking in pairs, some in large, loud groups, obviously out in the town for the night. The moon and stars were out in full force, providing the already well lit streets with a silvery aspect to them, the night sky alight with twinkling stars. There was a few wispy clouds in the sky, although they didn’t take anything away from the sight, the usually stiff breeze of the mountain city absent.
It was on nights like these that Celestia enjoyed sitting out on her balcony, watching the city below her. She took a small sip from her tea, setting it down beside her as she resigned herself to gazing over the city scape, and beyond, to the sporadic villages and forests that were the trademark of Equestria. The scene was peaceful, and she knew that if Luna was with her then, she would have been overjoyed at the thought of being able to share the wonders of her night sky with the ponies.
She smiled as she looked up at the moon, the ever present silhouette, the famous mare in the moon, gazing down upon her. Not a day went by when she didn’t think of her estranged sister, all those miles away on the moon. Although she was fearful for when her 1000 year tenure on the moon was up, she was also hopeful, hopeful that she would be able to do something different this time.
Looking back inside to her room, she let her gaze wonder until her eyes landed upon her suit of armour. In all of the years since she had banished her sister, she had only donned her armour twice more. There it sat on its ponyquin, the scrapes and dents it suffered all those moons ago still there still on full display, serving as both her link to the past and the mistakes she made there, and to the future, where she would learn from her past and build a better future.
She could still picture the night as clear as day. She revisited that night in her dreams again and again, reliving the events in picture perfect clarity, her bad dreams acting as a balancing act for the good life she had now. Perhaps Twilight Sparkle, new protégé, would enjoy that as a research project, she wondered idly, her gaze returning back to the city scene before her.
Looking back up to the moon, Celestia re-rolled, as she had thousands of times before, the events of that night in her head with crystal clarity.
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The air crackled with residual energy, white sparks darting and dancing around both the Alicorn’s body and the elements of harmony, still suspended in front of her. Celestia’s damaged golden armour glinted softly in the moons dim, silvery light, the destroyed castle below her casting long shadows on the fields and forests it once towered above.
A single tear streaked it’s way down her cheek, her magenta eyes quivering and her now limp mane barely stirring against the slight breeze, as the full realisation of what she’d just done hit her like a tonne of bricks.
Her sister... Luna...
Her wings began to falter, and the adrenalin that had been coursing through her ebbed and faded. She glided down to the front gate, once the centre piece of their home, with its intricate carvings now barely legible, the once majestic arch nothing more than rubble. She touched down on the ground stumbling, her vision blurring and her head spinning wildly. Pain clawed at her every nerve as she clumsily took off her armour, flinging the pieces away from her once they were detached. Once free from the armour, Celestia gave into the fatigue and anger at herself that was bubbling away, and collapsed onto the floor, releasing her hold on the elements and allowing them to fall to the ground.
She had banished her own sister.
A pain filled scream pierced the night.
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Celestia lay on the ground for what seemed like an eternity, her discarded armour strewn about her haphazardly, the only sound to be heard in the stillness of the night her own racked sobs. She didn’t know if any of their servants had made it out of the castle safely; none had approached her since she had landed, and she heard no other sounds apart from her own. Her head felt like it had been stabbed with a thousand white hot knives, and her body felt much the same.
The moon was riding high in the sky, surveying all beneath it with ageless indifference. To the ponies they ruled and watched over, it was ageless, with no beginning and no end, a comforting presence in the long winter nights. To her sister, the night had been a thing of wonders, a terrific melody of colours, the blues and purples contrasting with the stark, yet somehow fragile whites of the stars. Celestia had always admired her sisters ability to see the ecstasy of every day life, to see the extraordinary where she saw the mundane.
That moon, which had long watched over the ponies of Equestria during the long nights, now had a new addition to it. Taking centre stage, was the faint silhouette of a mares head; outlined against the near perfect white sheen of the moons surface. Celestia stared up at her sister for what seemed like an eternity, never once taking her eyes away. With no small amount of pain, She rose slowly, grimacing all the way, till she stood shakily on all four legs.
She cast her eyes around her. Their home lay in ruins. Illuminated by the moons soft glow, she could make out the smouldering ruins of what was once their magnum opus, the seat of their power and prestige, a castle Celestia and Luna had thought would last through the ages. The reality was a stark contrast, Celestia thought bitterly, silently damning the gift of hindsight. Their castle had been a representation of what they had hoped to achieve; their hopes and dreams, a land that was free and fair, with the hope that they would leave the world a better place then they had found it. It had been a statement, that never again would the lands that it looked over be ruled by an invading force, and never again would the inhabitants be anything less than equals.
That dream, that shared vision, Celestia thought, now lay broken, shattered by her own inability to withhold even one of her principles.
The wind picked up slightly, stirring up Celestia’s mane, and causing the leaves on the trees to rustle, breaking the veil of silence that was draped over the night. Celestia cast her eyes back to her discarded armour, and to where the elements of harmony lay dejected, small crackles of energy still jumping about on their surfaces. She lit up her horn, wincing as her head made its grievances known, and one by one picked up each element.
Generosity.
Loyalty.
Kindness.
Laughter.
Honesty.
Magic.
She looked them over, carefully analysing each one, rotating them slowly in her telekinetic grip. She had once thought, when she and her sister had first unleashed the elements powers, that she had a clear purpose, a reason for being, and that the lines between what made a pony good and evil where as clear cut as night and day. However, looking over the elements they had once wielded together, she couldn’t help but feel that her once solid assurances where nothing more than immature delusions. Nothing was merely as straight forward as she would have liked to believe. The lines between were blurred, inconsistent and messy. Nothing was as simple as either good or evil.
She began with a start, walking with purpose into the ruins of their former home, the elements in tow behind her. She began tracing her steps back, trying to find the room where the events of the night had commenced. Despite the castle having been almost levelled to the ground, it didn’t take Celestia long to make her way back to the throne room. The ceiling had collapsed inwards during their fight, draping the once brightly lit throne room in a thin silvery veil of moonlight. At the head of the room sat the sisters twin thrones, both sitting empty and silent, casting long shadows on the cracked wall behind them. The windows had all been shattered, the fallen shards twinkling dimly in the pale light. There was a single banner still hanging up, swaying slightly in the light breeze that was coming in through the shattered windows.
It was none of these that garnered Celestia’s attention however. She made her way slowly to the centre of the room, weaving her way slowly past the rubble and debris that had fallen that night, until she reached her destination: a large, stone pedestal, upon which the elements had rested. She brought them up near her face, looking deeply into each one, before placing them one by one back onto their respective places.
She stopped at the final one, magic, and held it in front of her, looking deep into it. She had originally thought that magic was the most important element, the one that tied them all together, but not anymore. The elements were of equal importance to one another; without one the others would not function. Each of them meant something, and she felt as if she had failed to uphold that principle. She had forgone any rights she once had to wield the elements.
With one final look, she carefully placed magic on its respective pedestal, and watched with weary eyes as it slowly sank back into the floor, the displaced tiles sliding back into place seamlessly. Here the elements would stay, lying dormant in the ruins of the Alicorns home, until the day came when another would be worthy of wielding their power.
Celestia gave the throne room one more sweeping look, before she turned sharply and walked out, her hooves crunching on the broken glass. She made her way back through the broken corridors and fallen debris to the front gate, a single tear making its way down her cheek as her hooves weaved lightly in between the fallen walls and ceilings. She walked through the remains of the front gate, and glanced down at her broken and scraped armour, laying where she had abandoned it.
Celestia stayed still for a few moments, before sighing heavily, and picking up each of the individual pieces of armour. She turned around, casting one last look at the ruined remains of their home, listening carefully for any sounds coming from the castle. With a heavy heart, she slowly turned her head, limping away down the main road from the castle, her ruined armour in tow behind her.
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Celestia sat atop a grassy hill with a single apple tree on it. From where she stood, she could see the whole valley below her, with its sprawling villages, high hedgerows and green fields. There was a lazy, meandering river threading it’s way through the valley, and in the far distance she could just about make out the mist covered mountains of Canterlot, the tall spires and unique architecture causing it to stand out amongst most other cities.
She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes, lighting up her horn at the same time. With practiced precision, which came from years and years of the same routine, she called forth the sun, the brilliant golds and yellows spreading slowly over the eastern horizon. Once she had the sunrise in motion, she focused her attentions on to the moon, an entity to which she was wholly unfamiliar with. She spent a while getting used to the moon, to how it worked and where it was, how it moved compared to the sun, before willing herself to lower it gently.
As the moon slowly sank behind the horizon, Celestia opened her eyes once more, focusing them on the moon, watching with awe as it slowly sank behind the hills. She stayed where she was sat, content with watching the last of the stars fade as they were drowned out by the sunrise.
She stood up, picking up the assorted pieces of her armour, looking back over where the moon had set, and towards the distant silhouette of Canterlot.
“Goodnight Luna”.
