It was a quiet evening in Canterlot, the streets of the capital city of Equestria slowly emptied, the day cycle of the cities' life slowly coming to an end. Empress Twilight Sparkle observed her domain with a warm smile, wind gently ruffling her ethereal mane. It was a wondorous sight that displayed itself before her, one she fought tooth and hoof for. Creatures of all ilk, from changelings to yaks roamed the prosperous city and coexisted in peace, a testament to her efforts as well as the efforts of her friends.
Her dearest, dearest friends.
The Empress sighed wearily, noticing her namesake steadily approaching. Soon it would be time for sun to hide under the west horizon, letting her sister steal the show for the time being. Twilight chuckled inwardly and remembered a simpler time. A time when she need not bother herself with strenuous paperwork, daily court sessions and meetings with foreign ambassadors. A time when she was content with running a small library in a quaint rural town. A time when all the excitement she could ever want was a picnic with her friends...
Her lovely, precious friends.
Twilight felt a pang of pain in her chest, one that seemed intent on staying, despite the alicorn's best attempts to silence it. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling, far from it, but she'd though she'd gotten better at controlling it as the years passed. The first time it came, she thought the world around her was going to crumble. Crumble into tiny, insignificant, innumerable pieces that were impossible to find, let alone put back together. She though she could never recover her little world, that it was lost forever and she was stuck in the middle of the pile of sharp fragments that cut her at every attempt to fix it.
But she did fix it. As best as she could, anyways. It was never quite the same, you see, since despite her best attempts to rectify the situation something was missing. She painstakingly rebuilt the world around her with tender love and care, yet each time she looked at it a piece of the whole mosaic was missing. She fixed it, but she was not alone. Somepony helped her.
Her wonderful, kind friends.
After the first pang, life presented itself in another light. She dreaded the day the next pang would hit her, for she knew what it would bring. For years and years she waited, often without rest, for the next strike. When it came, it was all she expected it to be. The world shattered once more, crumbling into the same, if slightly bigger pieces. Once again she scrambled to rebuild it, yet when she finished something was.... different.
She didn't know it at the time, but she learned soon enough. Each subsequent pang, each following shattering became more... bearable. She grew more confident in her attempts to rebuild the world, less touched by the whole ordeal. Until one faithfull day when the pang came, she, unnoticed by herself, remained unaffected. The mosaic groaned and creaked under the pressure, but withstood it. She remained stoic, falling into choking sobs only when her friend warned her of the path she was on.
Her treasured, final friend.
Twilight chuckled mirthlessly at the irony, clearing a tear from her eye.
A princess of Friendship, with only one friend! It'd be so funny, so very, very funny...
She shook her head, berating herself for reminiscing on the past. It was gone, no use in beating a dead-
Empress Twilight Sparkle forced the lump in her throat to disappate, making her way to her royal chambers. Perhaps she needed to indulge in some company, it was quite some time since she spoke with anyone for any reason beside royal duties.
She opened her chamber door, telling the guards to not let anyone in. She intended it to be a private conversation, one she'd hate to be interrupted. Comfortably resting on her feather bed, wrapped into a warming embrace of velvet she recited the summoning spell, her horn glowing a gentle purple aura. Reasoning that a little dramatic flare never hurt anypony, she took a deep breath and whispered his name.
But nobody came.
Perhaps he was playing a trick on her? The old draconequis was well known for his love for pranks and general mischief. Surely, he was just being a nuisance for comedy's sake. She spoke his name once more.
But nobody came.
Now he was testing her patience. All she wanted was to talk, was it so hard to oblige? It's not like they talked to eachother all too much as of late, royal duties take president over friendly chatter, unfortunatley. She spoke his name for the third time, fully expecting to be left unheeded.
But something happened.
In a bright flash of light the world around her fragmented, tearing itself apart. The parts drifted away from eachother, space between the quickly filling with a light blue color. She huffed, mildly irratated for being made to replace the costly furniture of her royal chabers, but it was no matter. Her friend was here, and they could finally talk!
There he was, floating on top of a pile of her royal bedsheets, in all his mismatched glory! She trotted up to him, but a warm greeting and a stern talking-to died on her lips as she looked into his eyes.
Those sad, old yellow eyes. They weren't quite as she remembered them, something was missing. A spark of some kind, one that was everpresent in all magical beings was now absent.
She wondered aloud if something was wrong.
The spirit nodded. How could she not see it? The Element Of Magic herself was surely the first to notice!
Empress trotted in place nervously, hoping she was wrong.
But she wasn't. She tried to ignore it, but it became harder and harder with each passing day. The very essense of the world, one which dictated the how's and why's, was leaving Equestria. The country, and indeed the entire world was hemmoraging magic at an alarming rate.
How could she've been so blind? Did she not notice the signs?
Surely she must've wondered where Sun and Moon have gone? Has she ever questoned their absence? Wrote a letter to ask how life was?
No, no she hasn't. It'd be rude to interrupt their retirement, after all.
She desperately searched for something that would prove her only friend, something, anything!
The frozen north!
Correspondance still came from the Empire, albeit the wording of the messages themselves have become more formal, unlike in the early ears... It was still proof though, proof that the other alicorns remained, albeit partially.
The Spirit shook his head. Has she ever wondered why North bothered with formalities when there were clear familial ties between the nations?
Perhaps there was a change of management. Not an insurrection or a coup, but an orderly transfer of power?
Twilight's brows furrowed. She never thought about it much, to be perfectly honest. What happened to Love? Or her Progeny?
Their time has passed, the Spirit concluded, the price of existance weighed too heavy on the world's dwindling magical resources and they...
Abdicated.
Just as the Spirit did.
Perhaps it was her time to abdicate.
They were not to speak until then, lest they accelerate magic's disappearance.
She cried out, begging, pleading the Spirit to stay, to talk, to be.
But he was no more.
And there she was, comfortably resting on her feather bed, wrapped into a warming embrace of velvet just as before.
Alone.
A Princess of Friendship, with no friends! It was so funny she could cry!
And cry she did.
