Chapters Chapter One: Crushing Silence
Author's Note
AN: It's been about 8 or 9 months since I have been able to actually write real fanfic, so thank goodness I have been able to write this. Unfortunately, as a result, my writing skills are a little out of practice. It's like if I stopped drawing for 8 to 9 months and then tried to draw a pony, realizing I forgot about 25% of the process and how I wrote characters.
Chapter One: Crushing Silence
Silence.
The absence of sounds is what Celestia appreciated most in the world. Silence. Not. A. Single. Sound. In her life, in her line of work. It was always hard to find a moment of silence. The noise of having to listen to nobels, the noise of having to bark orders to guards under her command, the noise of those judging each and every choice she ever made, the noise hurt.
But the silence, precious silence that she craved so much on a daily basis was now her new hurt. It ripped through her, it hurt more than her whole body did when she used the elements mere moments before. She felt her body slam to the cold stone ground, she heard the elements clatter around her, what she did not hear was a sound from Nightmare Moon. The silence was her answer.
She slowly raised her head from the ground, ignoring her body that felt as if it was touching the sun she rose each day burning in pain from the misuse of the elements and magical warfare she had been locked in for the past long hour. She looked around her, to the damaged throne room. Confused. Scared. Hopeful.
Hopeful that she might see Luna.
Her eyes fell on the ruined royal carpet in front of her. No sign her sister was ever in front of her at all. She looked down to the Element of Magic under her front hoof, the crystal star crackled with magic before fading to gray like a stone. Her breathing paused in further panic. Where was Luna? Why was the world so quiet?
She slowly looked painfully up to the moon through a hole in the roof to see a unicorn symbol that was not there before. Instinctively she knew what happened. Luna was up there. Nightmare Moon was in the Moon. Her sister wasn't here, her sister wouldn't be there for generations to come.
Silence.
The world was dead silent the moment the elements sent her sister to the moon. But soon sound returned. Not the birds chirping or confused citizens at the state of the moon and sky, but it started with a whimper from Celestia, the sun princess. She whimpered before it grew louder, she was soon screaming in the mindless horror that she caused. Her voice died when she collapsed down to the cold stone floor once again, devoid of energy.
Silence.
She found herself now hating the silence. The silence was inviting her thoughts about Luna. The silence was suffocating her alive. Reminding her with every breath she was truly alone. She didn't dare move even when she heard the sounds of life still within the castle.
Heavy footsteps galloped into the throne room before coming to an abrupt stop. Celestia didn't bother to get up for the sake of appearing to be a strong leader, Celestia didn't bother to say anything as she heard the pony, the royal guard stammer out orders to somepony farther into the castle that he found her, requesting medical aid.
The guard, either foolish or too brave for his own good, moved closer to her fallen form.
"P-Princess? Princess Celestia?" The guard gulped as he moved slowly, cautiously. "A-Are you...Alright? Princess?"
Celestia gritted her teeth as a large tear rolled down her cheek and connected with the floor. Was she alright? No, she was not alright. She would never be alright ever again. Not in the guard's lifetime would she be alright. And not in the generations, long after he was buried would she be alright.
Soon, deep sadness was replaced by irrational rage at the mere question. Rage at what she caused. What she had done. She deserved the pain. But Luna did not, and yet...Life moved on.
She made the first real movements of pulling herself together. She lifted her head to face the battered guard with wide scared eyes staring back at her a mere meter away. She pushed herself up on unsteady hooves, wishing desperately for the world to start again to make the silence go away.
"I am...fine, my dear pony." She gritted, before flinching as she attempted to flex her wings to check their condition, quickly realizing with a sharp pain that one was broken. The guard, despite his training in hiding emotions, was clearly not buying it. But he was in no position to question her.
Soon, three more royal guards entered the throne room, followed by the Captain of the guards. They all fell behind him as he marched up, clearly beaten and bruised from the fight before but still kept his training in check and he saluted and kept his expression neutral.
"Princess Celestia, your highness." The Captain said. Celestia nodded in acknowledgment of her being addressed due to protocol.
"Report, Captain."
"The Castle is severely damaged. The demon that was sighted-" His eyes momentarily drifted in a moment of weakness to the dull elements surrounding Celestia on the ground. "Has been...Vanquished. Although...Princess Luna has not been located and her guard is being detained-"
"Stop." Celestia barked harshly. "Just...stop. Don't. Say. Her. Name."
Celestia trembled for a moment as her Captain cast a brief worried look to the guard behind him who looked just as lost on what to do next. Celestia knew what would happen if she told them all the truth, the full truth. Her sister, if she did ever return, would never be accepted again. Her own leadership would be brought into question, as well as her mental stability.
"The Princess is gone. The demon took her." Celestia spat out in further explanation. "We...I..."
Celestia bit her lip hard enough to draw blood before she sucked in a deep breath.
"Her guards...were corrupted. Their minds...are corrupted. Do as you are, placing them under arrest. But do not do anything further. Do not hurt them. They will be put on trial and judged on their actions if they are beyond help. Beyond reason. Am I clear?"
All her guards nodded at once before she gestured with her uninjured wing for them to leave. To leave her alone to her own actions. She would have to pretend to be fine, as long as she had to.
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Chapter Three: A Headache
Nine Hundred and Ninty-Nine years later...
Celestia sat alone.
Well, not quite alone.
It was early morning, her first meeting, the one she was currently attending in one of the many large meeting rooms of Canterlot castle was filled with at least ten nobels around a large circular table. She, herself, was at the head of the table, staring down blankly at numerous scrolls as the childish bickering of the nobels drilled into her head.
She may not physically be alone.
But she sure felt as if she was. Even after Nine generations, nearly ten now, she felt alone without Luna. It still hurt her heart to think about her sister in passing even as she went from meeting to meeting in a daze. She looked up from the scrolls in front of her, scrolls she couldn't read even if she wanted to due to whoever wrote them had the grammar skills of a foal, which she suspected was one of the nobels trying to increase their own wealth.
She watched as Prince Blueblood, her nephew who she secretly despised, and Nobel Fancypants, who was a fine gentlepony but his snobbish tendency did get in the way sometimes, argued over...what exactly?
"Which is why we should redirect the summer sun celebration to my mansion!" Blueblood barked with a large smile. "If the castle is off limits for the celebration, why not celebrate it at the next best location? Prince Blueblood's mansion!"
"That is ludicrous!" Fancypants retorted, he looked briefly to the eight other nobels in the room for help, who looked just about ready to gallop out of the room to a spa. "Your mansion is not the grand attraction you believe it is. Besides the general public must be allowed to attend the sunrise, which won't be possible at your mansion due to, let's see, you are a snobbish stuck-up unicorn who believes he is better than anypony else."
Ah, Celestia mentally nodded to herself, this is why they were having the meeting. Celestia had to put the castle off limits for the celebration, she needed to renovate a part of the castle for Luna, when she returns...hopefully. They were trying to find a new spot to hold the celebration and Blueblood, clearly, had the wrong idea. Unfortunately, no one else was tossing out any ideas.
"Oh please, we are nobels. We have a higher standing than the rest of those low lives. If they wanted to be like us, they could have tried harder!"
"I agree." A noble next to Blueblood piped up. Causing Fancypants to glare at the both of them as Celestia felt a headache coming on. Celestia glanced down at the mess in front of her. For the sake of doing something and looking even a little busy as those three nobels started arguing again and the rest spaced out to nothing, she shuffled the papers with her magic and paused when she glanced at the map of Equestria. Her eyes fell on the town of "Ponyville."
She sighed, damn. She nearly forgot, well, she supposed the truth was, she practically wanted to forget why Ponyville was so important. She had gone to secretly visit the town a few months ago, she knew her student Twilight Sparkle was an element of Harmony, a key to freeing her sister. Unfortunately, Twilight wasn't exactly a social pony. Canterlot itself wasn't helping anything as the ponies living in the city weren't the most accepting. So she went to the next best option, Ponyvillle. Very well known for being accepting of all ponies. Besides, it might have done some good for Twilight to travel outside of Canterlot.
While she was in Ponyville, she saw an already strong group of five friends. She sensed their dedication to their friendship, she knew they were the rest of the elements and for the first time in hundreds of years, her heartfelt hope. She found out their names and occupations, she had a plan.
Now, to only accomplish it.
How?
Her ears perked up at the sound of a familiar fire popping in through the open window. She smiled as everyone paused when a flame of green fire came through the window and popped into existence a letter from her student in front of her. She grasped the letter and open it up, ignoring the annoyed glances of the Nobels around her as she began to read.
"My dearest teacher,
My continuing studies on pony magic have led me to discover that something really bad is about to happen! For you see, the mythical Mare in the Moon is in fact Nightmare Moon, and she's about to return to Equestria, and bring with her eternal night! Something must be done to make sure this terrible prophecy does not come true. I await your quick response.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."
It's funny how plans seem to line up. Soon the conclusion to her plan gave her energy as she managed to mentally connect the puzzle pieces together to form the final picture. She rechecked the Equestrian map, mentally calculating the costs to send to the town for the Summer Sun Celebration. They could do it in two days correct? If they could end winter in one day with no magic, surely this should be alright.
"Princess Celestia? Your Highness?"
She looked back up to see everyone looking directly at her with confusion as she held the letter, and several other files, books and scrolls in the air with her magic, followed by a quill and ink. She cleared her throat, a little embarrassed with herself but pressed on no matter what.
"We will not be holding it at Prince Blueblood's estate," Celestia said with royal authority, giving a quick glare to Blueblood that he was on a thin line, don't break it. Which he rolled his eyes at and growled. "The Summer Sun Celebration has always taken place in Canterlot despite it being a nationwide event. The country as a whole should be able to celebrate, so why not change not just the location of the celebration, but the city itself."
"So, not Canterlot?" A noble anxiously said. She nodded.
"Correct. Canterlot has more than enough money, we are the capital after all. Let's say...Ponyville. Ponyville is a small town which could use the economic boost anyhow. It's not very far from Canterlot, and is a welcoming community." She argued. The nobles, probably having heard of Ponyville in passing, looked at each other in equal disgust as they clearly did not like the idea. But it wasn't as if they could argue with an Alicorn.
She began writing down instructions to the mayor of the town as she looked around the table, giving them looks of disappointment.
"I realize this is a large change than the usual celebrations. But frankly, we need to seem more open. Although based on this meeting, I can see you are all more closed-minded than I thought." Celestia scolded. Some had the self-awareness to look down at the table in shame. With a flare of her magic, she sent the letter to Ponyville. She started immediately writing another letter, one directed towards her own student. The letter to set the final plan in motion.
"The meeting is over. I will go make the announcement to the public."
Twilight Sparkle paced her house, which is truthful was more of a library that just happened to have a bed and some basic needs inside. She was anxious and nervous over the impending doom coming and Spike seemed more concerned with some...Birthday Party? Moondancer's birthday party. She paused, for a brief moment, feeling slight guilt for blowing it off so easily but she shook her head and started pacing back and forth again. Doom was more important than some Birthday party.
"Twilight, I wouldn't hold your breathe on this..." Spike spoke up behind her, she turned to face her small dragon assistant with a confident smile.
"Oh, I'm not worried, Spike. The Princess trusts me completely. In all the years she's been my mentor she's never once doubted me. She will see how truly important this discovery is."
Then, within a moment, Spike gagged and reacted as the fire came out of his mouth to reveal a letter from the Princess.
"See? I knew she would want to take immediate action." Twilight's smile grew bigger as Spike gently picked up the letter and opened it to read it for her.
"My dearest, most faithful student Twilight.
You know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely. But you simply must stop reading those dusty old books!"
Twilight was now struggling to process what was happening as Spike seemed to be having too much delight in the response that came in as he read. Clearly trying to contain laughter as he read.
"My dear Twilight, there is more to a young pony's life than studying, so I'm sending you to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in this year's location: Ponyville. And, I have an even more essential task for you to complete: make some friends!
Your teacher, Princess Celestia."
Twilight groaned in horror as Spike rolled the letter back up with satisfaction.
Chapter Four: The Nightmare
Celestia stood in a room all to herself in Ponyville city hall, complete with a large window, allowing her to see the looming symbol of Nightmare Moon right above her. She turned to the mirror closest to her, she practiced smiles, something she had to do quite often as she had a public image to uphold after all. The public can't know how truly broken she was.
She fluttered her wings in irritation as her anxiety grew, the silence in the room wasn't helping. She needed a distraction, she needed to focus on one task at a time. She looked towards a nearby clock next, it was almost sunrise. So very close. She started pacing again, unsure of the next few hours of her life. Either Twilight would be able to save her sister or...or...
Celestia didn't want to think of any other conclusion. It wasn't helping anything.
Her ears perked in alarm at the sound of soft knocking coming from the entrance of the room.
"Come in." She called out. The door opened with the help of her guard's uniform magic as Mayor Mare trotted in, looking just as nervous as Celestia was but for very different reasons. She bowed to the Alicorn as the door shut before she cleared her throat.
"Princess Celestia, it is a pleasure to have you here." Mayor Mare said, a familiar greeting to the one she got earlier when she first arrived in town but Celestia didn't comment. She nodded.
"It is a pleasure to be here, Mayor. I hope the celebrations weren't too last minute to prepare for. I apologize for not giving you more of notice before hoof, the choice was quite last minute as Nobels can't decide on anything as you know."
"Haha, yes," The Mayor agreed with a sympathetic smile. "No, the preparations went quite well! Especially with your student to help organize everything."
"How is Twilight doing?" Celestia inquired. Hoping for some good news relating to her, hopefully, new friendships. The bad signs began immediately when the Mayor stopped being able to look her in the eye and shifted on her hooves uncomfortably at the topic.
"Well, Princess...She..." The Mayor seemed to be trying to find a way to sugarcoat the words she was going to say, causing her to trail off.
"You can speak to me bluntly, you know. We are both leaders, you don't need to walk on the thin ground around me." Celestia assured her. "What's wrong with Twilight?"
Mayor Mare started to pace back and forth to hold her own irritation.
"Princess Celestia, I am sure you are a wonderful teacher. The fact you run a school for the most gifted unicorns in the land proves that you are, also the experience of having been alive for generations has made you a wonderful pony to teach others. So I am sure what I am about to say is no surprise as it is sort of obvious. Twilight Sparkle, is not welcoming to the idea of making friends. She seems to be actively avoiding it." The Mayor admitted with her ears falling flat. "What I don't understand is how a pony that is your personal student doesn't understand how important friendship is, especially since it is one of your core messages to running this country. Friendship and unity are what created this nation and Twilight seems to despise it."
Celestia was worried this was the case, she knew she couldn't change Twilight's whole outlook on life within a matter of hours, which is why she had been mentally kicking herself for not sending Twilight away sooner. Her whole plan might be falling apart before her eyes simply because Celestia couldn't let go.
"When you came to me five months ago and asked about those five ponies in this town, I thought you were interested in what made five ponies with such different interests and personalities connect for the sake of teaching that to others, and I will say what I said then, to you again, you can't simply teach somepony that in one classroom sitting, they have to go out and experience it themselves through life." The Mayor turned, finally looking her in the eyes but with suspicion and slight anger. "You sent your student to meet each and every one of them, you made them be the main sources she had to talk to. They all want to be her friend, which I am sure you are happy to hear. Why? I don't know, she is the most anti-social pony I have met in quite a long time. She has, of course, rejected them."
Celestia's ears fell back at the news. The Mayor took another step closer to the elder Alicorn, fired up with adrenaline as the questions she had over the whole situation were finally able to be asked.
"Princess, I know when somepony is being set up. As you said, we are both leaders. As leaders, we are very accustomed to having to do such a thing to get things done. You are up to something. This isn't just a matter of your student needing to make friends, which she certainly does to help her attitude, but it's also a plan. A plan that I don't know of. I know this due to, of course, Twilight herself even being here. But also your behaviour. Ever since you got in here, you have been in this room, pacing. You are worried about something bigger than your student."
Celestia gulped.
"What is going on?"
Celestia didn't know how to respond, she should tell the truth of the matter? Would it help anypony if she even did? She looked towards the clock, three minutes to sunrise. It was too late for the Mayor to do anything anyway. Not enough time for her to even explain such a situation.
"Three minutes to sunrise, Mayor. Don't you think now would be a good time to make an announcement?"
The Mayor looked to the clock, she gritted her teeth, unsatisfied but nodded in the knowledge they had a duty to uphold. Celestia gave her a sad smile as the room became unsettling silence between them grew and the world outside. Luna. Nightmare Moon. She was coming. Celestia knew in her soul she was coming home.
The Mayor walked towards the door and began to open it before she paused and gave a glance back to Celestia.
"We will discuss this after sunrise, your highness?"
"Of course." Celestia nodded. The Mayor nodded back, partially satisfied, at least a little, and shut the door behind her as Celestia stood alone. Celestia didn't move as two minutes quickly passed. As the light in the room dimmed and died within a few seconds.
She could hear the faint sound of the Mayor's voice as the world stopped, the lights of the stars flashed and a unicorn symbol on the moon disappeared.
"In just a few moments, our town will witness the magic of the sunrise, and celebrate this, the longest day of the year! And now, it is my great honour to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day, the good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria..."
Celestia slightly smiled as felt herself falling to the ground as an attack came from all directions. Soon she could see and feel nothing but darkness consume her soul with a familiar cackle of Nightmare Moon she had heard only in her nightmare for the past ten generations.
-The End-
