Celestia looked out across the blood-soaked battlefield, cold wind blew in the twilight cast by the eclipse above. Though hidden in shadows she knew that her sister now resided there. The air was cold, and no sound save the eerie whistling of the wind through the low scrub and torn holes in the armor. The entirety of two armies was laid to waste. Quietly then a little louder Celestia heard uneven hoovesteps behind her.

Turning she beheld a white unicorn in dented armor, his left front leg dripping blood where a few shards of bone poked through the twisted and purpling flesh.

“Blue Steel!” Celestia cried out in shock, “I thought your entire battalion was wiped out! And what of my other champions? Have you seen any survivors?”

Blue Steel stopped, his light blue magic flickered out dropping the great sword that had been dragging behind him. “I held out on the west edge, my men were surrounded and held out as best they could. But we were overrun, I thought that my life was forfeit until I saw the elements fire.” He paused to cough, specks of blood splattered on the ground. “The rest of your champions are on their way to the celestial realms to your mother’s courts. I may join them before the day is up.”

Celestia felt her heart catch in her throat. “Blue Steel, I need you here. I just lost my sister and all my other champions, I can't lose you too!”

“My princess,” Blue rasped. “I doubt this is true. You always make fast friends and once the moon is lowered, all Equis will be safe once more.”

“The Moon!” Celestia exclaimed, “I have exiled my sister there and now there is no one to guide it through the heavens or be its stewardess!”

Blue Steel dropped the great sword. “Can you not take over for her and assume the stewardship of the great heavenly bodies?”

“I could but it would require more magic to wrest the moon from where it sits and answer to me than I have now. It took most of my power to keep the elements from purely destroying my sister. I simply lack the power to claim the moon” Celestia hung her head in defeat. Silence hung over the battlefield as she contemplated her failure to ultimately save her little ponies, the moon hung permanently in the sky, tied in a final act of defiance to block the sun. Nightmare Moon had won in the end. Even if she couldn't have eternal night, there wouldn't be day either.

“My princess,” Blue suddenly spoke up, “You still yet have a source of power that is at your disposal.”

“What do you mean?”

Blue coughed before continuing. “Me, Your Highness, I am your champion, empowered by you. Release me from your service and reclaim the power to move the moon. It might not be enough to…”

“No.” Celestia interrupted, “I mean yes, if I retook my power from you, it would give me enough strength to move the moon from the sun. But you would succumb to your wounds. I know that you have a wife, I- I want you to see her again. My mother told me herself that she is with foal.”

“That is good news,” Blue released a jagged puff of steam into the air. “But even more reason for you to release me. If you do not, I fear that this cold may get worse, and more will die from it. All that I ask for is that you take care of my line. Let them know that even you made sacrifices today. No one truly won…”

Celestia lowered her head. “Very well then, Blue Steel, knight champion of the sun, I release you from my service and divest my power from you. May you go in peace as a hero of the realm, with honor and dignity to one day gaze on the celestial shores.” Blue collapsed with a puff of air escaping his muzzle as he felt his last bit of energy rush out of him. He felt so, so, sleepy… just needed to close his eyes and rest, yes, everything would be fine.

Only a few hoovelengths away Celestia let out a soft gasp as she felt her soul become complete once more, her limp, dirt, and blood-stained, pink mane started to float curling upwards at the tips. The strands gained a soft ethereal quality to them.

A tear slipped past one of her eyes as she turned to face the eclipse hanging overhead. “Goodbye Blue, may one day I find you in the celestial army,” she whispered to herself as she focused all of her will on the two heavenly bodies locked together, the last work of The Nightmare chaining them together.

“Mother give me strength” Celestia prayed as she grasped her precious sun and tried to grasp the moon. She felt her will slip off like someone had smeared it with soap. A second try and again the moon rejected her.

Gritting her teeth she tried again asserting her will. Begging and demanding, she clawed and wrenched at the stubborn disk in the sky, desperately trying to remove it from its place.

With a loud crack echoing across the land, Celestia felt rather than saw the chains tethering the two disks together snap, the moon and its new marking sailing away from the sun letting its warmth shine over the land once again.

Her connection to the sun once again flowed freely Celestia watched, tears streaming down her face, and her mane newly adorned with blues and greens floating around her as the moon slowed and sunk below the horizon.

999 years 364 days later

5 am, the day before the longest day.

Applejack opened her eyes in the dim light of the predawn, though she could see just fine. Today was the day! The Apple clan had been chosen for the important role of providing the catering for the Summer Sun Celebration that was to take place in Ponyville tomorrow and that meant a lot of cooking for a large hungry crowd. She licked her lips at the thought of all the food. There was so much that they had to call in the entire clan from all across Equestria to be able to handle it all.

Rolling out of bed Applejack grabbed her faithful stetson and flipped it on top of her head moving around the gathered family members sleeping everywhere made her way out of her room, down the hall, and into the kitchen to start making breakfast for the well-over 50 members of the clan who were temporarily camped out in the cramped farmhouse. With the wood stove burning it didn’t take long to feel the wooden structure start to become busy as more family members started to wake up and join in the preparations for the day.

All of them being farm workers themselves they organized themselves, dividing into groups to start tasks and setting up the outdoor kitchen for the goods that would be baked that day and preparing the ingredients for the items baked fresh closer to the event. Applejack smiled as Celestia set the moon and raised the sun to shine on the many beings that inhabited the world waking to the new day.

6 am

Fluttershy opened the door to her cottage blinking into the golden beams of sunlight. Already many of her forest friends were awake and waiting for her to take care of them, some needing medical care or just waiting to enjoy her presence. Offering a quick morning prayer of thanks for Celestia and a more specific prayer to Pan the Steward of the Wild, she set about her morning routine.

Overnight a few bandages had gotten soiled and become loose requiring changing. A quick yip of greeting caught Fluttershy’s attention as a ball of white fluff bounded out of the underbrush of the Everfree forest.

“Orion!” She called from where she was looking over the letter she had received a month prior. “I see you have been out in the forest again.” The large wolf trotted over to the yellow pegasus large pink tongue lolling as it panted from its early run. “Eep!” Fluttershy squeaked as his large nose snorted right in her ear. “Orion! I love you too but I need to concentrate! I need to gather up the birds I need for the symphony. They want me to arrange the music for when the Princess raises the sun. Oh, I do hope that no pony is looking, they are all going to be the… Oof!”

Fluttershy’s mounting panic was cut off as Orion flopped on the ground, knocking Fluttershy down and pinning her with his large head. A large huff of air blew over her mane. The pair laid there in silence, for a few moments. “Thank you Orion, you are right, it will be ok and Celestia will like my birds. I probably should go get them practicing and make sure that they are ready for the ceremony.” Fluttershy pried herself out from underneath the large wolf’s head and started towards the perches and roosts that were tucked to the side of the cottage.

7 am

“Must. Look. Perfect!” Rarity squinted into the mirror applying the last of the makeup needed for the day. To think that she almost forgot too! Scaring Sweety Bell when coming down the stairs to eat breakfast certainly was a good reminder to make sure her hair was in place and her makeup was there. She certainly needed to look the part, She had volunteered to beautify the town hall in preparation for the Summer Sun Celebration. Good heavens, Celestia herself was going to be there!

Rarity almost swooned and would have fallen on her trusty fainting couch, but she had just curled her hair and wasn’t about to spend another 45 minutes curling it again.

8 am

Pinkie dusted her apron off and trotted to the door, it was time for Sugar Cube Corner to open! She had been up since dawn baking cupcakes and danishes and other yummy treats to sell to the happy ponies that walked through the door.

“Yuppers, Mr. Narrator!” Pinkie mumbled through the closed sign she was flipping to open. “I worked extra hard on these baked goods so that all of my friends can eat something good for breakfast! Don’t tell Mrs. Pie but I decided to experiment with the leftover dough, I wanted to try mixing in peppermint sticks for extra sweetness!”

That sounds like a very sweet treat. Are you excited for today?

“Yippa rooni! Tomorrow is the Summer Sun Celebration and there are going to be a lot of new ponies in town, and they won’t have any friends here so I am going to get to know ALL of them and then we’ll be friends and they will have a friend here because that friend is ME!” Pinkie threw herself back onto her two back legs and her arms held wide at the declaration.

Well, I am glad that you have gotten that all taken care of. If you don’t mind, I have to go introduce some other characters. I hope that you don’t mind me popping up here and there.

“I don’t mind Mr. Narrator, go and narrate those stories! Oh, and don’t forget to tell the readers I said hi!” Pinkie fell back to four legs and pronked behind the counter to wait for the early customers.

9 am

High above Ponyville a cyan mare blinked her magenta eyes and stretched. A quick morning workout and then a nap on a cloud in the summer morning sun before work always helped her feel fully charged for the day ahead. As the leader of the Ponyville weather team, it fell to her to make sure that the weather was perfect for the upcoming celebration. Of course, when you could clear the sky for a perfect sunrise in only ten seconds there wasn’t any rush to prepare.

In fact, if she got her nap early enough there would be plenty of time to practice her moves to show off when the Wonderbolts showed up to perform. There was no doubt in her mind that when they showed up and saw her faster-than-fast speeds, tight turns, loop-de-loops, and other moves, they would practically beg her to join them. Rainbow Dash sank a little lower into the fluffy cloud and spread her wings out to either side, the warm sun still at an angle felt perfectly warm and not too hot.

10 am

Twilight Sparkle, the personal student of Princess Celestia and a member of the Solar Sisterhood exited the library. If anyone saw her they would definitely not have said that she bounced with excitement. It would be improper for a Princess’s student to skip and most certainly would go against the calm demeanor of the clergy to gaily bounce down the steps with a large dusty tome held in her magic. Those people would not be well aware of the Princess’ student’s personality when presented with a new book.

Yes, it was a perfectly nice day for reading a new, to her, book outside. The sun-shaped pendant that hung around her neck clanked and sparkled in the bright sunlight as she made her way out of the castle grounds to find a nice tree to read under. This was a great day and nothing could ruin it!

Author's Note

Hello and Welcome! After over a year of watching the show and almost as long lurking on this site of chaos, I had some ideas and was encouraged to put them to (digital) paper. (Shout out to ThUndEr Ho0of) This is a slice-of-life and adventure retelling of the show with tons of world-building mixed with a ton of headcanons, fannons, and ideas inspired by fan fics that I enjoyed reading. Specifically ‘Family Secrets: The Reveal’ by Schrodinger’s Pony, ‘Twilight Gets a Puppy’ by TDR, ‘Myths and Birthrights’ by Tundra, and ‘Undead Robot Bug Crusaders’ by Banjo64 as well as a ton of others that I have enjoyed. I will try to credit the stories that inspired certain aspects of my own story. So if you loved those I hope you will enjoy this one too.

I also want to ~~rip off~~ copy Damaged’s shtick of having an ‘ask a character’ segment in the author’s notes at the end of each chapter. SO ask away, all answers will be in character as they are in the story, but will not affect the story at all. Who knows, maybe you will give me an idea of what to add.

About the story itself (If you are still here reading this I think you deserve it.) I have tweaked some of the characters’ personalities partially because it will help the story in the long run. I felt that some flaws needed tweaking, and I don’t have time to re-watch every episode to make sure that they are canon personalities. Speaking of which, this story will start out close to the canon story but ~~might~~ will get a little derailed a ~~little~~ lot by if not before the end of season 3. This means that only really large canonical events might remain. Singular episode events might be entirely different (I don’t know, haven't gotten there yet)

The first big change to address, I hate Angel Bunny (I don't know why, I just can't stand the thing, go ahead boo me), so he’s not here. Instead we have a quiet-on-the-outside, tough-on-the-inside pegasus ‘guarded’ by a tough outside but calm inside big, white wolf. I wanted to call it Sirius after Orion’s hunting dog, but I dislike HP hype in general.