Equestria, Harmony the base ruling concept for this land and so it was that the land was peaceful for the last few millennia. The earth ponies, unicorn, and pegasi collectively live, work, and trust in one another to keep everything in working order without the slightest help from the old gods. The three that remain that hold power over every other being remain, but why? They have as much opportunity to leave as those before them why do they remain? They have been needed for a while now, but with the ascent of Princess Twilight are they needed truly any more?
Celestia put her quill down. The time was closely approaching for her to finally take her leave of this realm. She looked from her scratching of aimless notes out her window. It was mid day now. She had retired from her courts early today so she may come to grips with this decision. This realm was filled with beauty much more than many foreign realms she traveled through. Some filled with desolation others with boundless horrors.
She was here from the beginning as was her sister as was Discord. Their time among mortals though was coming to an end. She more than saw through her mission to ensure this land was taken care of, remained peaceful, and bound to grow more so. She had seen many horrors and she was determined to ensure it no longer could be within the spectrum of possibility for this land.
She sighed deeply. She had had an unofficial meeting with her sister and Discord the previous night and it had been decided that this land was now taken care of well enough. With Twilight spear heading Equestria’s leadership and leading them into another golden era no harm could come to the land with the disappearance of one sun goddess, one lunar goddess, and of course the god of mischief himself.
Each of the old gods had taken a mission of their own when they had first convened. The elder of all the gods ordained Celestia the task of ensuring the land was well supplied with nourishment and that the mortals were well settled and could survive on their own and so it went she became the light of this world. Luna similar to Celestia charged with the task of ensuring knowledge and wisdom would be instilled in the mortals and that the night skies sparkled with the yearning of those that would delve into the unknown. She took the task of the harbinger of night and knowledge. Discords task much simpler, but just as highly needed was that he’d be a teacher of both patience and true appreciation of what is. He made the mortals understand the need of both harmony and why it is the basis of their society.
The old gods that had remained longest, but had left, what Celestia thought, was only a short while ago were the ancients who filled this world with creations. Promithus, the elder god who shaped earth ponies and all creatures who occupied the land from clay, he taught them to fend for themselves and to till the land even giving them the gift of fire. He left for another realm to create and ensure the prolonging of other mortal realms. Horis, the god who filled the air and skies with pegasi and all airborne creatures made from cloud, he taught them flight and the way of the weather. He remained a bit longer ensuring his own creations would be well looked after. The last goddess whose name came to Celestia's mind was Bocob the mistress of magic. She created all the magic that would fill this world even making creatures that inherently use it. She loved the world, but she knew when her time was up and she left in time as well.With the creators of all gone and forgotten it remained for the three of us to set this world on a path that would ensure its survival.
Celestia stood and looked around her room. Her possessions were packed she made sure to keep all items that had sentimental value to her. She would store them with the others in her own inter-dimensional space.
She sighed again, closed her eyes, and bowed her head. This was the hardest part of being a goddess. She grew so fond of her worlds she never wanted to leave. However, that wasn’t her choice she had to move on. The mortals had to choose the world they wanted to live in. It wasn’t her place to fix things as she saw fit. What good was free will if she could simply make things better? No, the mortals had been under her care for too long they needed to be thrown in the water to see if they sank or swam.
She straightened up steel entering her spine. She glanced around her room once more ensuring she had left nothing behind. With that she exited her room carrying her baggage close behind.
She entered the throne room and in the late afternoon light now she saw two familiar shapes. That of Discord and Luna neither were speaking the simply looked down trodden both with baggage of their own. Neither said a word as she approached settling down her bags she turned to Luna.
“Sister it is time to relinquish our binding ties to this world.”
Luna nodded. Celestia closed her eyes and began to focus. She pictured the entirety of her planet in her mind. With a force of effort and quite a bit of magic the world began to spin in a slow arc and began to rotate around the sun. Her tie was suddenly severed she opened her eyes and looked at her flank the image of the sun on her flank slowly dissolved into nothing but her white color.
She looked to Luna and found her sisters own flank blank as well and with that the diarchy of the sun and lunar princesses was over. Discord seemed content to sit upon his pile of pink clouds he had conjured up sipping the chocolate milk out of them with one giant loopy straw.
“Discord it is time for us to leave this mortal coil.”
“Don’t lecture me Celestia, I know very well what we must do now.”
He was uncharacteristically rational in the way he spoke despite the constant buzzer noises, croaking, and quacking coming from each sip he took from the cloud. With Celestia’s comment Discord banished his convenient couch and beverage and stood. He cracked his neck rolled his head off his shoulders and then re-grew another. With a simple word spoken in an ancient celestial language Discord called forth a door.
The door was not anything extraordinary. A wooden door painted white with a simple brass knob and a key hole beneath it. Discord withdrew a key from thin air walked up to the door unlocked it and opened it. Void was all that was beyond the door seamless fabric of realities. Discord gave one sad looked over his shoulder called forth his baggage and strode forth into eternity.
Luna much like discord walked up to the door levitating her bags looked back upon the throne room and exited reality. Celestia’s heart beat a million beats a minute. She withdrew a scroll from her bag and passed her final words to her former apprentice in Ponyville. She smiled sadly remembering everything all at once that had occurred in her life time here. She picked up her bags and tentatively stepped through the door. With that the door shut and the last of the immortals had left putting Equestria’s fate in the hooves of its own citizens.
One Year Later
The door remained firmly shut. Despite the dragon’s best effort to open it, it remained firmly shut bound by some harsh magic. He sighed to himself and proceeded to carry the breakfast he had prepared back to the kitchen where he settled it on a dumbwaiter and sent it up to the library he had previously tried to enter. Moments later some empty dishes returned nothing more. No note, no compliment, nothing at all.
Spike resigned himself to his chores that were of course, self assigned, since not even he had seen the Princess for almost a year now. Not that there were many chores to be done, no pony ever visited the castle, not since Twilight had become a shut in that is. After the disappearance of her closest mentor she did her best to shoulder on, but I guess she just didn’t have the heart for it anymore. She gave up her claim on the throne and gave the task of ruling all of Equestria over to the only other Princess left in Equestria, Princess Cadence.
Spike began polishing the throne room chairs. This room had remained empty since the defeat of Tirek. Twilight had been so filled with hope after that. She had been appointed the Princess of Friendship she had everything she could want. She worked so hard to make it known throughout the land that friendship was what was truly important, a binding force and a true display of harmony. With the backing of her mentor it seemed that Twilight was truly fit to lead Equestria.
He continued to polish each chair then he came to Twilight’s. He started with the backing working his way around to the front. He climbed up standing on the arm rest and reached for the head with his rag and read the same inscription he always did when he got to this point. “TWILIGHT SPARKLE: PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP, MAY YOUR RULE BE LONG AND FRUITFUL FILLED WITH THE LOVE OF YOUR FRIENDS.” Spike scoffed at the inscription. “Yeah, right that was a long a fruitful rule.”
Spike had been balancing on the arm rest when his weight went out from underneath him and he tumbled to the ground hitting his head on the castle floor.
“AHHHHHHH,” he angrily threw his rag at the bucket tipping it over spilling water over the floor.
“WHATS THE POINT OF ALL THIS ANYMORE?”
His shout resounded in the empty castle. He put his head in his claws and sat brooding for moment. He couldn’t understand what had happened. Celestia and Luna had disappeared and according to Fluttershy, Discord hadn’t been seen for about the same amount of time either. At first Twilight was gung ho about setting up search parties to begin scouring the lands for the missing duo. Then we received a letter using Celestia’s preferred mailing point, me. Twilight quickly unraveled the scroll and read it to herself.
I think it was at that point something changed in Twilight. It was like her world had just collapsed. She called off the search ponies simply stating that Celestia and Luna would return of their own accord when ready. She mechanically went about her tasks not letting any emotion show anymore and after about two weeks she stopped acting as the ruler and made her own disappearing act much like Celestia and Luna.
Spike wasn’t even sure what Twilight had meant by Celestia and Luna returning of their own accord. The elements of harmony had been broken up, by Twilight’s disappearance. Applejack and Fluttershy still lived in Ponyville, but the others had moved on. Rainbow Dash finally accepting a position with the Wonderbolts left for Cloudsdale where she works close at hoof with the demonstrations team. Rarity left for Manehatten where she designed her own clothing line and she apparently was receiving quite the recognition for her work. Pinkie Pie became an exclusive party planner so she traveled a lot despite her home still being in Ponyville.
The group had been broken up, but more than that a strong friendship and bonds that bound each mare to one another was gone. I think Fluttershy and AJ still talked, but for the most part each pony went on their own pathway after Twilight hid away from the world. She had truly been a binding force when it came to the friendship. She had been a mediator, advisor, and well of knowledge to rely on. However, when she chose to abandon that she didn’t just lose a kingdom,she lost sight of what was truly important.
Spike began straightening up the kitchen now. The dumbwaiter returning once again with dishes neatly stacked and empty of food. He added them to the dishes in the sink. At one point, Twilight’s friends had tried to send him up the dumbwaiter to no avail a barrier caught him on the way up almost crushing him before he could yell to be pulled back down. Twilight had taken every possible measure to ensure she was left alone other than blowing up the building.
Her friends eventually, after exhausting every effort to get twilight out of the library, began to argue and fight blaming one another. The arguments became heated and one by one they began to leave. Spike could do nothing but watch as his friends left and soon Twilight was his charge. Other than the occasional food stops no other visitors came.
Spike had finished his daily duties once again and seeing as it was only 1000 he returned to his own room and climbed back into bed. If the princess wasn’t going to leave so be it he’d return to his own bed and be utterly useless to. He had a picture of Twilight and him on his night stand. He smiled sadly at it and silently wished for better days.
She gently and slowly ate as was her normal rate of eating these days. Spike had prepared her favorite as usual yet it brought no comfort to her. Twilight finished her meal and then left the dishes at her desk until the next time the dumbwaiter returned with more food and she slowly trudged back to her cot in the corner and set about reading again. Piles of books lay in neat orderly stacks around her cot, pillars of solitude. She selected her next book and began reading, The Principles and Applications of Basic Levitation. What was this the seventh or eighth time she read this? She mused quietly well whatever would help keep her mind off other topics.
The library was clean as ever and twilight, thanks to her vast magic, kept herself and everything around her pristine. She had no need to produce food thanks to Spike, but how long would that last before he abandoned her too. No, she refused to think about that, she was done with all that, why should she care? If her oldest and greatest bond could be shattered so easily, why should any other be any different? She buried herself in her book like always and blocked out the world.
Her blanket pulled tightly around her and only her face poked out to read she sighed and began from the beginning. Hours seemed to pass exactly like this day after day after day. Twilight no longer cared for the world outside, her solace came from something she knew couldn't just simply walk out of her life. A glimmer out of the corner of her eye distracted her for a second. She thought it was the dumbwaiter, but that wasn't right it was not the time for lunch. She closed her book and turned her attention to her desk.
Upon it sat a present. It was simply a tan box with a lid and red ribbon crisscrossing over it and sealing it shut with a bow. She set her book down and sluggishly made her way to the desk. It was no larger than loaf of bread. She inspected it carefully lifting it up and turning it over. It wasn't heavy, but where had it come from. She had warded the library well enough that nothing living or not should have been able to get in. So, where had it come from? Gifts brought memories of parties and with it her friends. She shook her head harshly shaking away the memories that pained her.
She shrugged her shoulders. What could it hurt to open it? She undid the ribbon and lifted off the top. Magical darkness enveloped her and Twilight hardly had time to scream as she was sucked into the box. The library now empty the box replaced the top upon itself.
