Twilight Sparkle stood at the edge of the mountain, moving one hoof in front of the other to calmly balance herself as the ground shook gently beneath her. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, exhaling as she opened her eyes, revealing her rather forlorn expression. She glanced downwards - down the mountain and all along the valley below, thousands of ponies could be seen for miles, cheering up into the sky at the massive flaming ball of plasma that was slowly descending beneath the skyline.
A loud, droning roar could be heard coming from no direction in particular. The ground was shaking…but not intensely enough to knock a pony off her legs.
The visual would be quite bizarre to an onlooker, she thought to herself. If a pony were, perchance, to stumble upon her at this cliffside and see what she was seeing - the gigantic sun “roaring” as it slowly seemed to “die” - without any context, they would likely be very confused.
Twilight, of course, was not confused. This horrific situation had completely consumed her life - and everypony she knew - for almost two months now. The struggle was rough, but luckily, in the end, no lives were lost and Equestria was once again at peace.
“What’s on your mind, dear pupil?” the soothing voice of Princess Celestia washed over her like a calm breeze as the alicorn approached her unicorn pupil.
"Not much, Princess," Twilight sighed, her gaze drifting off to the side. The light on the horizon was already fading.
"You aren't worried about where our light will come from going forward, are you?", Celestia asked, taking a few steps to try and meet Twilight's gaze, "I thought I had already explained Luna and I's plan for artificial sunlight. Equestria will be fine. For a few days until it's ready, we will live in Luna's beautiful night."
The two stood in silence for another moment, staring into the distance. Celestia smiled and tilted her head, hoping to lighten the mood with a joke.
"Fear not. It should be far more peaceful than the last time Equestria experienced a long night."
"No, m'am. That's not it," Twilight sighed, deliberately turning her head away from the direction Celestia was pacing to meet her at.
"I guess I'm just worried about...other things."
Celestia softly rested a hoof on Twilight's back to comfort her.
"If you'd like to speak about it, you know I'm here. If you don't, please understand that I will always support you, no matter what."
"I know, Princess," Twilight spoke dryly. She blinked, and tilted her head up again. The massive flaming ball was still visible - now half hidden beyond the mountains - still flaring and blaring strong, but quite visibly defeated. A single tear dripped from her eye. Celestia smiled at the rather beautiful visual, Twilight's face illuminated by the glowing orange light, a tiny bit of a rainbow visible as some of the last organic light to reach Equestria reflected itself from the tear.
There was a rather striking finality in that phrase which she hadn't quite processed yet, Celestia thought to herself. The finality of "the last light" hadn't really set in. She guessed that, to herself, these kinds of events weren't as significant when she had lived for the thousands of years she did. She had no doubt that, within a few more millennia, a new, natural star could be created - but it was very unlikely that any of these ponies, Twilight included, would be around to see it.
"Hey, you guys!" a third voice interjected, causing the pair to turn in tandem - this voice was similarly recognizable. Twilight and Celestia both smiled as Sunset Shimmer trotted up to them, almost completely out of breath.
"Sorry for taking so long," Sunset gasped, trying to catch her breath. "I had a bit of trouble finding you guys up here. I get that it's a nice view, but was there any reason it had to be so far away from camp?"
"We were just thinking, dear," Celestia smiled, resting a wing on the exhausted pony, "about how different things will be now. I wanted to talk with Twilight about the transition, and it seemed like a good idea to do it somewhere quiet and peaceful. The only place I could think of was this cliff."
Sunset laughed, finally standing up straight and stretching.
"Well, I think it's time we go back. It's going to be nighttime soon."
"That's not really going to matter much pretty soon, is it?" chuckled Twilight.
"Not with the artificial light source we've been working on. It's already 95% complete, and it'll be finished in a few more days," Sunset answered earnestly.
"In fact, it will make my job a lot easier," Celestia chimed in, "For example, with this new system, I won't have to manually raise the sun anymore. Hopefully, with time, we can set it all up on an artificial schedule, so that Luna and I can focus on ruling the kingdom...and teaching our magic to you, Twilight."
Twilight couldn't help but smile at that.
"So seriously, what's got you so down, Twi? We won!" Sunset asked sincerely of her friend.
"Well, I guess I just wasn't expecting there to be somepony in disguise."
Sunset and Celestia sighed deeply, knowing of course exactly which specific event Twilight was referencing. As the memory was rather traumatic and, as just stated, they clearly understood that sentence perfectly, no elaboration was needed.
"You know, Twilight," Sunset perked up, trying to change the subject, "I think you and I should go back to Ponyville tomorrow. We've spent so much time here in Canterlot, and I'm sure everypony will be happy to see us. I don't know them as well as you do, obviously, but man, I sure love Mrs. Cake-"
"There's still work to be done," Twilight sighed, "We can't rest yet. Not until Equestria is once again illuminated."
Sunset looked rather dejected, but after a few moments of noticing the awkward pause, Celestia laughed heartily. A little out of place, perhaps, but the sentiment was genuine as Celestia spoke clearly after clearing her throat.
"Twilight, you seem to have forgotten we have rallied an entire kingdom behind this cause. Please, rest for a while. You and Sunset deserve it."
"Besides," Sunset smirked, "It's not like the world is ending or anything. We'll always have each other! Who needs a sun when you've got friends as bright as Pinkie Pie? As radiant as Rarity?"
Twilight laughed a little, though ever grimly.
"Yeah. I guess you're right."
As the three turned to leave, Twilight turned to look over her shoulder once more at the brilliant glowing bulb. She sighed, and wordlessly turned back to walk back with the others.
A half dozen minutes down the trail, Twilight stopped, and turned her head one last time.
It was gone.
She blinked, and looked again.
It was really gone. Darkness had completely engulfed the land, only slight shimmers and reflections remaining, and even those died out within seconds. The sun would, of course, continue to "fall" through space, defeated, until it destroyed itself or fell into a black hole.
Of course, space was rather directionless, as Twilight absolutely knew, but it was the easiest way to explain what was happening to a layman. In reality, the sun had simply lost its control over the Equestrian planet and was being repelled by its gravitational field instead of pulling it towards its own - it was all rather complicated and not necessary for any one pony to know.
Perhaps she could apply that logic to her own conundrums. Perhaps the things she worried about - the things she thought were the most important - were truly just as insignificant as the fears she regularly dispelled from others.
She took a deep breath and smiled - genuinely, now, for the first time that evening. As the warm light of the approaching campgrounds illuminated the clear outlines of her best friends - Pinkie bouncing, of course - she finally seemed to feel some kind of peace.
Who knew when the sun would rise again?
To Twilight, it didn't really matter.
Author's Note
I'm not sure if this story will work for you. This is similar to "That Face", where the 'point' of the story is to present a bizarre situation but not explain anything about it, leaving the reader to draw conclusions - but a bit more deliberate with the almost tounge-in-cheek mentions of how everypony knows what's going on, so they won't bother elaborating on any statements.
Was this random arthouse crap thrown together when my cooler, longer idea didn't have time to finish? Maybe. Or maybe you'll like it...we'll see???
