One Thousand Years
by MaxKodan
The sun broke over the eastern horizon once again. Ponies watched in awe, but shielded their eyes from the brilliance. It had been so long since they had seen daylight, it hardly seemed real. But the burning as their eyes were forced to readjust was worth it to see this momentus day. The first day following the eternal night. The day after Nightmare Moon.
Canterlot had turned into a giant partyground, ponies celebrating like they'd never celebrated before. The gates to the castle opened, and in no time flat it was filled to capacity. Lights everywhere, even in the middle of the day. The entirety of Canterlot was alive with sound and celebration, save for one floor. In the deepest rooms of the castle, 4 figures stood around a table. The argument had begun hushed, but was now growing and growing in ferocity. From one room over, the imprisoned Nightmare Moon, Luna, was standing, stewing in her defeat, wishing to rage and thrash, but unable to. She had been caught, really and truly captured. She couldn't make out the words from the next room over, until...
"Then it's decided." A male pony, gruff, authoritative, and worldwise. Then two other voices joined his.
"Execute her." Silence fell. The urge to thrash nearly broke through the magical bonds. One of her muscles felt like it twitched, the stone prison in which she was being kept felt as though it was cracking. It wasn't.
Princess Celestia stood in bitter silence, a brighter source of light than the lone lantern hanging over the table. She fought back tears, watching and listening to these proceedings. If she spoke up against the execution, she would be written off as being weak and emotional by these three selected leaders. But how could she not be, when the life or death of her only sister was being discussed by a tribunal?
The voice that had ended the discussion earlier broke the silence. "Now, to discuss the circumstances of the execution, I think we'll all agree on it quite easily." An older earth-pony, hard eyes staring at each of the other participants, leaned on the table. Brawny Spirit by birth, he preferred the name Warhorse. He led a militia of earth ponies who specialized in dealing with threats to small settlements and big cities alike, fighting off the more vicious attackers when they appeared. His proudest moment was when he personally led a defense against a small herd of Cockatrices with not a single pony loss. "She shall be executed in the city of Staliongrad."
"Preposterous!" A middle-aged unicorn Mare raised herself up onto her back hooves and clopped her front ones down on the table hard enough to shake it and the lamp above. Slowly, Celestia lifted her sad eyes to look at Crystal Darling, or Madame Crystal to her students. She headed the largest school of magic in Equestria, so large, in fact, that all other schools were considered subsidiaries of it, including many schools for pegasi and earth ponies. Her voice was sharp, but oddly soothing. A pair of horn rimmed glasses perched on her muzzle, and over them she glared at Warhorse. "What right do you have to claim this? Why should the Earth Ponies be given the honor of housing the execution?"
"Because, Madame Darling," Warhorse's mispronunciation of her name was obvious and targetted. "We Earth Ponies suffered the most from her reign! Without the sun, our crops withered! Our food source, ALL your food sources I might remind you, suffered great losses, and I assure you that this winter will not be fun for any of us. And now, our livlihoods and our food both are threatened. She will be executed on the ground she crippled." The last statement was not a suggestion, it was a command. Madame Crystal was not amused.
"Under her rule, our magic, the magic that powers so much construction and progress within Equestria dwindled. She attacked us, and siphoned it for herself, leaving our college broken and useless. We will rebuild, but it will require months and months of work, without much help from magic. And to restore the store of magical energy, several of us will be required to remove ourselves from the world at large and simply focus on that alone, quite possibly for years! For what she did to us, she will be executed in the Great Library!"
The pegasus that sat at the table had been mostly quiet until now. "Oh no, we have no magic! And a few of our crops are low! Pfah." She stared around the room with cold eyes, locking on Celestia for a moment. Even the Princess felt a bit unnerved by Rain Flicker, who hadn't cared to change her name as the other two had. Her wings were folded back, and dull eyes glared at the leaders of the other two pony tribes. While this pony seemed calm, it was important to remember that she had the influence and intelligence to direct the changing of every season, to control every sunny day, every cloudburst in all of equestria. She was an intimidating personality, to be sure.
The other two seemed to have nothing to say at the moment, so she continued. "Both of you, bickering like fillies. Would you like to know what the pegasi have been enduring? Without the sun, Cloudsdale began to freeze. Moving water throughout the city became impossible, the weather was out of control, and many, many homes are now unlivable. We have ponies homeless, sleeping in the streets. You're low on food, and you have to rebuild your college? We need homes. The ceremony should take place in Cloudsdale. While it will take a long time to build homes, at the very least we can boost a little morale."
After a moment of silence, the three ponies laid into eachother, hollering and yelling in such a way that their voices became hardly distinguishable from one another. Princess Celestia could no longer take this. She turned and walked slowly away from the table. The other three didn't even seem to notice the dimming of the light as she slid through the door at the end of the long, dark room.
Luna, or rather Nightmare Moon, had lost track of the conversation. Now it was just a cacophony of noise. It didn't matter, the moment these fools let down the enchantment that kept her bound, she would make her escape, surely. She would have the time to...to...
Stones couldn't cry. She had had all of her power stripped. She was useless now, unable to lift a pebble, much less an enchantment. She was going to die. She was going to-
The door opened. Her eyes had been frozen, trained on it this entire time. Physically unable to move. She watched as her sister walked in and closed the door behind her. The arguing was reaching a fevered pitch now, but it still didn't matter. Her sister was here, and that was all she could muster to hate at the moment. But she did. She focused every bit of hatred she had at the one thing she could see. Princess Celestia stood there, her expression unreadable. Hate, hate hate hate.
"I am here to..." Princess Celestia stopped midsentence and looked at the door to make sure that the two were completely cut off from the next room. They were still out there, she could hear them. All three of them bickering about where they would kill her sister. She again fought back the tears. "I am here to deliver your judgement, little sister."
Nightmare Moon felt herself shudder this time. Surely it wasn't another trick of her imagination. She could almost hear the stone casing around her crackle. Almost, if I can free myself, maybe I can...
Celestia's horn glowed. First dimly, then brighter and brighter. The more the princess concentrated, the more she saw. More of the future. More of the prophecy that was forming because of what she was going to do, right here, right now. In one thousand years...
"Princess Luna of Equestria! Nightmare Moon!" Her enchanted voice boomed throughout all of Canterlot. "We hereby banish thee to the moon! Thou shalt remain there, as punishment, as a reminder of what thou hast done! Thou shalt stand and watch Equestria grow and florish! Thou shalt watch thine terror be undone! Now, begone, Nightmare Moon, to spend the rest of thine days in exile!" A circle of light surrounded Luna, and her stone prison broke. She gasped in a sharp breath, but before she could do anything in response, she was gone.
Princess Celestia stood alone in the room, smiling softly to herself. Soon, she knew, the three pony leaders would storm in and accost her. She had probably made quite a few enemies with this little move, but in time they would forget. They would turn to their society, and eventually the ponies would rebuild and mingle and befriend eachother. And some day, two pegusi, two unicorns, two earth ponies, and one baby dragon would meet and become friends. And on that day...
"See you soon, little sister." She turned and looked at the three stunned ponies who stood in the door, and prepared to face whatever would come. In one thousand years, it would all be worth it.
