The Decline and Fall of West Equestria: Twilight's Tale

Celestia's Abdication

The time for Celestia to raise the sun would come all too quickly given that we lost track of time in what would be our final, long discussion. As we headed out for her to raise the sun, the mob that had burned the wealthy side of town was gathered in the courtyard but rather than booing they were celebrating. That was not normal given how things had been lately. We looked down into the crowd and found out why they were celebrating, they had dragged the bodies of those they massacred the night before into the courtyard and began yelling, "You're next, you're next!"

Our jaws dropped open, we had never expected such a thing to happen in Equestria, much less Canterlot which up until recently was the most refined, most sophisticated city in all of Equestria. Now it is nothing more than a burned out shell of itself, a city that is in shambles. Celestia looked at me and said, "Well Twilight, I will raise the sun one last time and after that I will address them one last time."

I asked, "But who will handle the sun and moon once you are gone?"

Celestia replied, "Once I am gone, the magic that handles the movement of the celestial bodies will be gone so things will return to how they used to be, the sun and moon will move on their own."

I asked, "Celestia, are you completely sure you wish to abdicate?"

Celestia replied, "Yes Twilight, like I said before, I am no longer wanted here and your time has come."

I wept, "Ok Celestia, I will miss you but I respect your decision."

After raising the sun Celestia stood at the edge of the balcony and looked down at the crowd in disgust. They began to boo her and she did something I never imagined she would do, she fired a bolt of energy at them and yelled, "SILENCE!"

This caused the crowd to gasp in shock before going silent. Once they were all quiet Celestia began her address,

"Citizens of Canterlot, I know you are angry over the collapse of the economy and I know what the elite said to you yesterday was not warranted, but that is no reason for you to march into their side of town, burn their homes down and it is certainly not acceptable to slaughter them." Her voice became more angry as she continued, "All of you sicken me. I just don't get how all of you could just go and mercilessly kill so many ponies, ponies just like you."

A pony in the crowd yelled, "They were not like us. They were rich jackasses that thought they were better than us, they had it coming, they asked for this!"

Celestia's anger turned into angry cry, "You know what, I'm done. You don't respect your fellow ponies, you scream and yell hurtful things at me, you hate me, you see no value in life and I know you don't want me around anymore. Effective immediately, I am abdicating the throne and Princess Twilight will be the sole ruler of Equestria."

The crowd began to cheer in victory. I had never been more disgusted in my life. I looked out into the crowd of cheering ponies and my heart turned to stone. These ponies, the ones who brutally murdered their fellow Canterlot residents, didn't even seem like ponies anymore to me. They reminded me more of griffons who will kill others in cold blood.

Celestia could see my disgust, she pulled me close and said, "Twilight, I know you are angry but please don't let your anger consume you. Please do not stoop to their level, show them that you are the bigger pony."

I replied, "But Celestia, they killed so many ponies! What am I supposed to do, just let them walk free?"

Celestia said, "Twilight, they have already brought their doom upon themselves. They have no means to make a living, they have no means in which to acquire what they need to survive and they won't be able to make it up here on their own. I think they have punished themselves more than you ever could, short of death."

I replied, "Ok Celestia, I will do as you wish. I will not punish them, I will just leave them here to rot, that should be enough punishment."

Celestia put her wing around me and said, "Well Twilight, I guess this is goodbye. We will see each other during international summits and I am sure you will probably come visit once I get Saddle Arabia restored."

We hugged and cried for a few minutes before Celestia turned to the crowd and said, "Despite you trying to kill me, despite your hateful shouts, despite your blood lust and despite your disregard for the lives of others, I want you to know that I wish you well. Goodbye."

As Celestia took off and flew towards Vanhoover, the crowd was cheering in joy. They then began to cheer, "ONE MORE AND WE'RE FREE, ONE MORE AND WE'RE FREE!"

I wasn't quite sure how to handle this in a way that Celestia would want me to. I had my own desires of what I would do but I promised Celestia that I would not kill them but I certainly don't want them moving to Ponyville and I will let them know that.

The End of Canterlot

Given what the crowd started chanting upon Celesta's departure, I was not sure how to handle what I would say to them. While it would be difficult, I knew I had to keep my composure. I stood there for a minute, planning on what I would do while they began pointing their hooves at me chanting, "YOU'RE NEXT, YOU'RE NEXT!"

I walked up to the front of the balcony, fired a beam of energy skywards and yelled, "SILENCE!"

Once the crowd quieted down I began, "Citizens of Canterlot, I know you are angry over what has happened in the past few months but like what Celestia said, your actions are uncalled for. Ok, the protests I can understand, but the riots, the looting, the killing of guards, hateful comments, the attempted assassinations of Celestia and myself, the assassination of Blueblood, the massacre of the wealthy and the destruction of property are uncalled for.

Many of you have committed many, many crimes over the past couple weeks. Some of you have simply looted but many of you have done much worse. What really bothers me is how you treated Princess Celestia when she had always been loving and caring towards all of you. She does that yet you treat her like dirt, some of you tried to kill her and many of you blamed her for things she has no control over. I will say this, you better be glad you didn't do all of this while Luna was still here because she would have executed anypony who was involved in the riots, the murders and the assassination attempts."

The crowd began to chant, "ABDICATE, ABDICATE."

I just brushed it off and continued, "And now, what to do about this situation. As all of you can plainly see, this city is a disaster area. There are no more businesses, half the city is gutted by fire and littered with the corpses of ponies that YOU killed. I did have plans on how I was going to punish those involved in this but you better thank Celestia for me sparing you my wrath. She told me that you have already brought enough punishment to yourself. You have no means of making a living, there are no resources here for you and I have decided to cut train service to Canterlot so anypony who stays here will likely not survive."

A pony in the crowd yelled, "What are we supposed to do Twily? You were Celestia's little pet, you should know."

I screamed, "You know what? I don't care, move to another city, go live off the land somewhere but don't even think of relocating to Ponyville, any of you!"

Another pony asked, "Why not?"

I sighed, "Because I am moving the capitol there and I do not need these kinds of activities there." I took flight and said one final thing to them, "Listen, I don't wish you ill will but I am extremely disappointed in you."

With that I took off towards Ponyville. I know this might sound bad but I honestly didn't care what happened with those ponies. They can stay there and rot, they can go to other cities and rot or they could just go live off the land, as long as they didn't try to move to Ponyville I would be ok with it.