Prologue: Those Left Behind

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Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters

Five hours and one minute after the banishment of Nightmare Moon

Celestia

She couldn't stop crying.

Celestia wanted to, but she just couldn't cease to mourn for her beloved sister. She was sitting in the ruins of their home, her tears wetting the ground, grieving for the horrible loss that gripped her broken heart.

"How did I not see it coming?"

Questions like these are what the sun princess asked herself, over and over again. Remembering everything and trying to piece together the reasons for her little sister's despair. Try as she might though, Celestia just couldn't come to grips with Luna's hatred, it eluded her and taunted her with how much she had failed her beloved Lulu.

And so she wept.

Her subjects had long since fled, terrified of the monster her sister had become. Celestia knew she should go to them, calm them, and soothe their fears. But how could she when she couldn't calm herself?

The elements had abandoned her.

As soon as Celestia had banished her sister to the moon, the gems faded and went inert, rejecting the royal sisters, no longer finding them worthy of being their bearers. Turning themselves to stone, they refused to answer her pleading and begging, no matter how much she cried before the deaf stones. Magic itself disappeared, waiting for the one who would wield it again with its full power, uniting the others in a harmonic balance.

Still she wept.

Celestia lied on the cold rubble, wishing that it was all an illusion, praying that it had all been a nightmare.

Nightmare Moon.

Just the name caused the broken princess to renew her sobbing, laying her head pitifully in the puddle of her own sadness as fresh tears fell like stars to join their brethren beneath the weeping mare.

"Luna, what will I do without you? We were meant to rule together. Why has this happened? I'm so sorry Lulu, I have failed as a princess, as a friend, and as your big sister. Please, just let it all be a bad dream. Please, come back to me......"

Only the silence answered her pleading.

Several hours later Celestia dragged herself through the remains of her home, searching for an answer, a memory, and a shred of hope for her little sister. She never stopped weeping, a trail of tears followed the white alicorn all throughout the ruins.

She was standing in Lulu's room.

It was a pale shadow of the beauty it once inspired. The bed was torn, curtains ripped, and stone shattered. What grief tore at her little sister that would drive her to the depths of despair and madness?

There Celestia collapsed on the torn bed, fresh sobbing wracking her frame as new grief rose up inside the remorseful pony.

A faint crying could be heard.

It was not her own, she realized, and Celestia searched for the source of the foreign wailing.

It was coming from under the broken stone of her sister's floor.

Celestia weakly rose to her hooves, the waterfall of tears never ceasing and looked through weeping eyes for the origin of the soft crying. She could hear it under the stone, and lifting up the scorched rubble she uncovered a secret stairwell.

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