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

Return to Ponyville

After a turbulent absence from Ponyville I finally returned. I was looking forward to seeing my friends but I would be met by others first. As I was flying over town I heard shouts of, "Finally coming home coward?" and "Tyrant."

I was hoping that all the negative feelings here in Ponyville had died down but unfortunately that was not the case. I landed on my balcony and headed into the castle where I was immediately greeted by Spike. He rushed to me and asked, "Twilight, is everything ok?"

I replied, "No Spike, they are not ok." I began to sob, "Canterlot has fallen, Celestia has abdicated, many, many ponies have been mercilessly slaughtered, Blueblood was assassinated, some members of the royal guard have been murdered and the ones that weren't have abandoned their posts, Celestia and I were attacked and half of the buildings in Canterlot have been gutted by fire."

Spike hugged me and asked, "What do we do now that Celestia is gone? Who will raise and lower the sun and moon?"

I replied, "Well with her and Luna gone, the sun and moon will now move on their own. Also, I am moving the capitol to Ponyville since Canterlot is a disaster area." I looked towards my balcony and asked, "Have they been yelling and throwing things towards the castle while I have been gone?"

Spike replied, "Well they did until they realized that you were gone. After that things returned to normal for the most part."

I asked, "For the most part?"

Spike replied, "Yeah, for the most part. Sugarcube Corner had to close down because the Cakes couldn't afford to import a lot of the ingredients they use in their products."

I asked, "So did Pinkie Pie have to move back to the rock farm?"

Spike replied, "No. She is living with Applejack helping out around Sweet Apple Acres anyway she can."

I asked, "What about the rest of my friends?"

Spike replied, "Well Fluttershy has had to part with some of her animals, Rainbow Dash still handles the weather, Rarity is really hurting because she can't afford to import fabric anymore and Applejack is worried about ponies not being able to afford to buy her apples or jam anymore."

I said, "I would like to talk with them and relax but I think I should address the town first. If I tell them everything that has happened, maybe they will calm down and ponies can come to the castle without risk of attack."

Spike replied, "Hopefully, but with as upset as they are I wouldn't count on it."

Calming Down Ponyville

I headed out to my balcony and looked over the town. Very quickly ponies began to boo and call me names. This naturally caused other ponies to come out of their homes and gather around my castle. One most of the town had gathered I shouted, "QUIET!"

Given that they had never heard me yell before that quickly caused them to stop yelling and booing. I said, "That's better. Now there are some very important things I need to tell you."

One of the ponies yelled, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know about Luna leaving. That's old news."

I replied, "This is about things that happened in Canterlot while I was up there." I took a deep breath and continued, "There have been many, many ponies murdered in Canterlot, the royal guard there have left their posts, Prince Blueblood was assassinated, there have been riots up there, many buildings have been set ablaze there..."

A pony in the crowd interrupted, "Oh, so that is why we saw all those flames and smoke up there."

I was frustrated that they would interrupt me but I was able to keep my cool. I replied, "Yes, that was what happened when the working class attacked and burned the wealthy side of town." I paused for a minute and continued, "And before you ask, every single wealthy pony in Canterlot was killed."

The crowd appeared to be shocked that such a thing would happen anywhere in Equestria, much less Canterlot. While they stood there in silence I continued, "Also, there was an angry mob who stormed the castle and attempted to assassinate not just me but Princess Celestia. Because of this, Princess Celestia abdicated the throne and now I am the only princess left in West Equestria."

The crowd gasped in shock. I could sense a change in the emotion of the crowd. When I first started addressing them I saw hateful looks of disgust and suddenly I saw looks of sorrow, sadness and concern in their eyes. The crowd began to cry and beg me for forgiveness over how they had treated me. I decided it would be safe to fly down into the crowd where I could continue to speak to them.

"It is ok, I forgive you but we have a lot of work to do. We are going to have to cooperate with one another and more of us are going to have to learn to grow food if we are to survive."

Filthy Rich asked, "Princess Twilight, I know that will work here in the smaller towns but what about the cities of Las Pegasus and Vanhoover? What advice would you give them?"

I replied, "You know, I'm honestly not sure what those ponies will do because most of them don't have anywhere to grow their own food, not to mention most city ponies don't know the first thing about growing food to begin with. I'll figure something out and let them know what needs to be done but for now, I just want to find my friends and relax."

As I flew over towards Sweet Apple Acres the crowd dispersed. While I had hoped that I would hear ponies shouting, "We love you Princess Twilight." that did not happen. All I heard was them talking among themselves and figured that was better than being called a tyrant.

An Unexpected Visitor

When I arrived at Sweet Apple Acres I found my friends gathered by the barn enjoying some pie. I am guessing that this is where we will be getting together to enjoy our sweets from now on. I said, "Hi girls! It is so good to see you."

Rarity ran up to me and hugged me, "It is so good to see you too darling! You were gone for such a long time, is everything ok?"

I replied, "No, things are not ok. Half of Canterlot has been reduced to burned out buildings, a large percentage of the population was murdered, Prince Blueblood was assassinated and an angry mob attempted to assassinate Celestia and myself."

They all gasped, "They did what?"

I replied, "They tried to kill Celestia and myself." I began to sob, "And because of that, Celestia has abdicated and headed to Saddle Arabia."

My friends stood there in shock for a minute before Applejack asked, "Twilight, what are we going to do now? Luna followed Starlight for a power grab abroad and now Celestia has left as well?"

I replied, "I'm not sure about a lot of things but one thing is certain, I am relocating the capitol to Ponyville. Canterlot is a disaster area and out of the few residents that still do live there, they despise anypony with a large sum of money and of course any pony that is royalty is not hurting."

Rainbow asked, "Twilight, what is going to happen to everything in the treasury up there? I'm sure they are probably going to try to break into it."

I replied, "I'm not overly worried about it. Celestia was the only one who knew the spell to get in there and it is built very well. Once I am certain that the city is fully abandoned, I along with a few guards will go up there and do whatever it takes to get in there."

Pinkie asked, "How will you know when those meanies have left the city?"

I replied, "Well it should be sometime soon. I have cut off train service to Canterlot and they will have to eat, which will be impossible up there now. Give it a couple weeks and the city should be empty."

Rarity's eyes grew wide and she asked, "Twilight, when you go to do this could I help?"

When I saw Rarity's eyes grow wide like that when she asked if she could help I knew that she probably wanted to do it for reasons other than to help me. I replied, "No Rarity, you can not have any of the crown jewels."

Rarity begged, "But Twilight,"

I interrupted, "Rarity, I know you. Normally you would never want to help with something that would involve heavy labor. You just want some of the fancy gems don't you?"

Before Rarity could reply we heard roaring off in the distance, coming from Ponyville. We raced to town and would not be pleased with what we saw. Cerberus had left his post, again! "Damn it, damn it!" I yelled. My yells became an angry scream as I continued, "Great, just great. Tirek is probably going to get loose again."

While I was screaming angrily Fluttershy had calmed Cerberus down like she did last time and said, "Uhm, Twilight, if it is ok with you maybe we should get Cerberus back to the gates of Tartarus. Maybe we can stop anything from escaping."

While I was frustrated and had a feeling that some ancient evil had already got loose, I knew that maybe we could keep at least some of the things in there if we hurried. I replied, "Alright Fluttershy, let's get him home."

With Fluttershy leading the way we were able to get Cerberus back to his post much quicker but still, he was away long enough that something could have escaped. While I took a look around in there and didn't see anything out of the ordinary, I remembered that things looked perfectly fine the first time I returned Cerberus to his post. All I could do is hope that nothing did escape because this time we would not just be able to use the rainbow power to defeat whoever escaped, that was just a one time special thing that happened to be available when we defeated Tirek.