Last One Out, Get The Lights
Cadance was the first of us to depart.
Looking back on it, it makes sense, but I recall only feeling confusion at the time…mixed with a hint of betrayal. I recall feeling like she was abandoning her post, her calling.
Now? I look forward to seeing her again, and feel compelled to praise her foresight.
“I’m leaving Equestria.”
Cadance’s words seemed to echo in the chamber for longer than they should have, making Twilight wonder if her sister-in-law hadn’t laced them with a little magic for extra impact.
She didn’t spend long on that thought, as a new one came to replace it; the fact that neither Luna nor Celestia appeared to be surprised in the least.
“Leaving?” Twilight asked, her tone making it clear she wanted clarification. While she waited, she took a moment to channel her breathing, forcing her heart and mind to remain calm.
For her part, Cadance seemed slightly embarrassed at the way she’d made her announcement. Shifting on her pillow, moving to where she could better look Twilight in the eyes, she nodded.
“I’m leaving Equestria…and I don’t plan to return.”
Twilight’s agile mind raced with questions, but she settled for the obvious one. “Why?”
Cadance swallowed. "Ponies are losing their desire to love. Not wholly, of course, but I can feel it. Even in the Empire, the love of ponykind is beginning to wane. And I can't stop it."
"But you're the Princess of Love!" Twilight exclaimed. "Can't you just..."
"Wave my horn and make everything better?" Cadance smiled weakly. "I can't replace desire, any more than I can force two ponies with no attraction to each other to fall in love. No, Twilight...I cannot fix this."
Before Twilight could reply, Celestia spoke up.
“Alicorns are the embodiment of many virtues, but they each have one focus in particular, do they not?”
“Of course," Twilight replied. "We're granted our talents, same as other ponies get theirs through their cutie marks."
Ever the teacher, Celestia’s tone was a gentle, patient one. “And this central virtue…is the power inherently ours, or is it something granted and strengthened by the belief of our little ponies? Their belief that we not only embody it, but deserve to?”
Twilight opened her mouth to answer, but no words came out. For that to happen, she would have needed to know what to say.
From the knowing smile on her face, it didn’t seem like Celestia had expected an answer anyway. “I’ve always felt that one of the most underrated skills in life is knowing when to take your leave. Cadance first reached out to me a little over a year ago, and she and I have given the issue much thought.”
“As have I,” Luna added, joining the conversation at last. “I do not feel it is my time, yet, but I support my niece in her decision to…pass on, as it were.”
Twilight looked at the three of them, in something akin to shock.
“You can’t just leave,” she finally said, hurt and fear in her voice. “You’re the last friends I have. If you leave, I’ll be all alone, and I-“
Before Twilight’s rant could build up steam, Celestia stepped forward, embracing her former student in her wide, comforting wings.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I will not leave you.”
The words had the intended effect, and Twilight tried not to be too obvious about sinking into her former mentor’s embrace as the tears started to flow.
As her mind calmed, the softer, more emotionally aware side of her that she had spent decades strengthening realized that Cadance looked as though she were about to cry herself.
“Twilight, I…I don’t want to-“
Now it was Twilight’s turn to be the mare of comfort. As she moved to embrace her sister-in-law, doing her best to put on a brave face, she said the words that Cadance needed to hear.
“I’ll support your decision, even if I may not understand it.” She pulled back, giving Cadance a watery smile. “And even after you’re gone…you’ll still always be the best foalsitter in all of Equestria.”
Cadance half-laughed, half-choked, and the two mares – sisters – embraced once more.
It took her about six months to fully prepare to leave. There had been arrangements to make, coronations to oversee. Flurry Heart took her place as Sovereign of the Crystal Empire, a decision met with more rapid acceptance than I expected. They were almost too eager to see Cadance gone.
Perhaps I should have seen it then. But I must remind myself that I wasn’t ready.
About five years after Cadance left, Luna decided it was her time to depart.
You'd think the second time would have been easier for me.
It wasn't.
“But why now?” Twilight asked, staring at the mare who had come into her office as though she were merely placing an order for lunch.
“When my niece made the decision to pass on, I said that it was not yet my time. Recent events have caused me to reevaluate that decision.”
“Is it something I did? Is there something I can do?” Having lost Cadance, Twilight was loathe to lose another of her dearest friends.
“Nay to both questions, my dearest Twilight,” Luna replied, standing up to walk around and embrace the younger mare. “The time may come for you to decide to follow me, but my heart tells me that time is not yet. Yet I would be a liar if I did not admit that I pray our separation will be short.”
“When do you leave?” Twilight asked, trying to remain calm, fighting against the sucking sense of loss that threatened to overwhelm her.
“A few weeks,” Luna replied, trying to put on a brave face herself. “I do not have the entanglements that burdened Cadance. Few will miss a retired pony such as myself taking a very extended vacation.” She nuzzled Twilight, a few tears falling from her eyes. “I will stay here in the castle for the duration, if you wish.”
"I...I would like that."
I later learned that the ‘recent event’ that caused Luna to decide to leave was the dreamscape closing itself to her.
One of the first things I did upon hearing that from Celestia was attempt to enter it myself, but I was unable to even find it, when once it had been as simple as stepping into another room.
I thought back on Celestia’s question that she’d asked when Cadance had announced her intention to leave, about how Alicorns derived their power. At the time, I recalled feeling quite certain of one answer…but I started to wonder if I had been too hasty in that declaration.
Yet even now, many years later, I still don’t have the answer.
I can only say that it was an egg that put the final steps for our departure in motion. Not a dragon egg, nor some eldritch horror that had laid undiscovered for eons. Just a simple, humble white chicken egg, something Pinkie might have used to bake one of her cakes.
The pony that threw it had no idea what would result.
I wonder if they would have changed their mind, knowing how it would end?
Twilight looked at the crowd standing in the square, and felt unease for some reason she couldn’t name.
“Are you sure you want to be here, Princess?” Stout Hoof, the current head of the Royal Guard, fixed her with a concerned stare. “We can just send a messenger.”
“No,” she replied, putting on a brave smile. It was her job to stand strong for her little ponies, and that meant her guards too. “No, Stout Hoof. I will be just fine. And they need to hear it from me.”
There was nothing she could have done about the accident last week. She knew that, analytically. The ponies that had done the investigation had all made it very clear, that it was an unavoidable accident. No one could really explain why several unicorns had been unable to cast the needed spell in the moment, and not having been there, there was nothing she could have done.
So why did she feel like she’d failed them?
Stepping up to the podium that had been erected, she flared her wings in greeting, smiling brightly at them, drawing their attention and silence.
“Citizens of Canterlot, I thank you for your patience this day, and for the patience you have displayed this week as we have strived to determine what caused the collapse in the Southern District. It is-“
Exactly what Twilight was about to say next was only ever known to herself, for in that moment somepony decided to hurl an egg at the stage.
Twilight kept various protective spells around her person when out in public, as a matter of habit more than anything. Those were only meant to stop fast-moving objects, like arrows or spears, things that could cause her bodily injury.
They weren’t crafted to stop something slow, and so the egg landed squarely on her muzzle, covering her face in its yolky goo.
If the square had been quiet before, now it dropped into a dead silence, and even the very air seemed to hold its breath.
Nopony had ever dared do such a thing before. Nopony had even considered it.
The egg had two immediate effects.
Firstly, the ponies in the square saw their sovereign leader, the immortal that had guided them for as long as most could remember, for what she was.
A pony, nothing more, nothing less.
And second, the bubble of obliviousness that had built up around Twilight herself popped. As she did her best to wipe the eggy mess from her eyes, she saw clearly for the first time that her little ponies doubted her.
While her mind was still processing that painful realization, the shouts began.
“Why didn’t you stop it!?” somepony cried, which was met with cheers and jeers in response.
“Aren’t you supposed to have all the answers!?” another pony shouted.
"What good is magic, if it can't stop such accidents!?"
As the volume from the crowd intensified, the Guard, initially shocked into stillness by the brazen attack, moved quickly to escort the Princess to safety. As much as Twilight wanted to spread her wings and simply fly back to the castle, her nature, honed over centuries of rule, refused to let her take the coward’s exit. She walked with her head held high and proud, turning her back on the raucous crowd of nobles and merchants in the square, which were being corralled by the remaining guards and a few helpful bystanders. She would not give them the satisfaction of knowing how much the egg had rattled her.
At least, not immediately.
It took me a few weeks before I reached out to Celestia. I’d wanted to be sure of my feelings and thoughts on the matter.
That egg, that stupid egg, did more to change the course of Equestria’s future than anything a princess ever did.
I asked Celestia if she took a few weeks of her own to respond because she wanted me to be sure. With a laugh, she told me that she wished she were that cunning, and explained the delay away as her having been out traveling.
I’m still not sure she was telling the truth, but it doesn’t matter. I was still set on leaving.
It took about a year to complete all the transition work. Some of that was delays caused by my own hooves, out of nervousness and fear that I was acting rashly. Through all that time, Celestia remained by my side, ever patient, ever trusting.
It was only after I made public my intention to step down that I was convinced it was the right choice. Ponies were…respectful, but there was hardly a line of petitioners outside begging me to retain the throne.
I still wonder how it took me so long to see.
I chose a successor from one of the unicorns that had recently graduated from my School. None of my students had ever proven worthy to ascend to Alicornhood, something that I hadn’t worried too much about previously.
Perhaps it is for the best that ponies will have a leader with a natural lifespan.
I leave this letter, along with all my other writings, in the hooves of Flurry Heart. She has proven to be a very capable ruler, and the Crystal Empire has prospered under her reign. Yet, while she has offered to go with us, I have seen it in her heart that she is not yet ready to move on.
I now understand why it is that none of my fellow princesses pressured me to make this choice. They knew, as I now know, that the choice has to come from within.
To those who receive these records in the future, may the Sun smile upon you, may the Moon bless you with her face, may Love fill your heart, and may Magic guide your way.
Twilight Sparkle.
“I’m going to miss you.” Flurry made no effort to hide her tears, which glistened in the fading moonlight.
“And I you,” Twilight replied, embracing her niece tightly. “But it’s time for me to move onto the next thing.”
“You have my instructions for how to follow us, should you wish,” Celestia added. “Your mother would kill me if I didn’t make sure of that.”
Flurry giggled. “Yes, she would. But it’s not my time.”
And then there was nothing more to be said.
Celestia and Twilight stepped some distance away from Flurry, lighting their horns as they charged the spell.
“Tell her I said hello,” Flurry called out.
The two mares smiled one last time before vanishing.
As the sun rose over the quarry, a griffon stonecutter looked across the rock they were attempting to dislodge, and felt a faint flicker of distrust toward the pony in his sight.
The unicorn currently hammering away at the final section holding the rock to the face hadn’t done anything to deserve it. He’d been nothing but forthright and trustworthy since he’d arrived, and the griffon wondered if perhaps that was why the feeling passed as quickly as it did.
But the thought lingered.
As for the unicorn, he was wondering why he’d nearly lost control of the hammer several moments ago. It was as though his connection to his magic had briefly cut off, though it felt fine once more, if perhaps a touch weaker.
But the doubt lingered.
As the final bit of rock was severed, the two exchanged a glance, each putting on a brave face.
Things would be fine. They were sure of it.
Flurry Heart watched the sun rise, the new ruler of Equestria doing it just as Twilight had done for centuries. Yet it was partly obscured by the dark storm clouds on the horizon, as if heralding rough days ahead.
She remained untroubled.
The Princess of Hope would always wait for the new dawn.
