Where Will You Run to When Your Goddesses Are Gone?

"The frontier between hell and heaven is only the difference between two ways of looking at things."

~ George Bernard Shaw

—————

Nighttime had come for all the ponies in Equestria. The sun sunk down low beyond the horizon, and what light was left was a brilliant pinkish purple that melded together with the dark indigo night sky. Up above, the moon cast a soft silvery white light that illuminated the ground just a bit. Beyond it, the stars gleamed and twinkled, with most of them concentrated in a milky white band of light that stretched overhead.

All but three ponies still believed that it was Princess Celestia who had brought the sun down, and Princess Luna who had brought the moon up. Everypony else lived their life in blissful ignorance. Mares tucked their fillies and colts into bed, reading them bedtime stories such as "The Great and Powerful Princess Celestia", and stallions retired to their own beds to sleep.

The bustling activity of the day in Canterlot had worn down completely. The streets were empty; carriages were nonexistent at this time of night, and there could only be two or three ponies seen trotting down the sidewalks along any given lane. Everypony had gone home to have a good night's rest, relaxing from a hard day's work, with many ponies having much more work than others.

The sun had gone on this side of the planet. However, on the other side, the first day of a new age was just beginning.

Here, the squirrels in the trees continued to live their own lives like it was just another day. The birds in the trees sang their beautiful songs, the bunnies on the ground conversed among themselves, and the nocturnal predators of the night were peacefully sleeping. Everything was in perfect harmony. There was no pain, no loss, and no suffering around these parts. Up in the sky, there were no clouds. The sun shone its bright, unbridled rays down to the ground, warming the plants and animals that lived in it.

A single grayish-black shape seemed to suddenly appear, high in the sky. It grew larger and larger, almost obscured by the sun, until it suddenly split off into eight shapes, three of which were larger than the others, and one particular one of the three much bigger than the rest combined. Those eight continued to grow bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until they cast a shadow on the forest below.

The squirrels sitting on the branches glanced up in confusion. The bunnies twitched their ears and flinched before scattering. The birds in the trees stopped singing completely, flying away into safer and more shadowed places, and even the predators sensed the disturbance and burrowed deeper into whatever homes they were sleeping in.

Now, the shadows had become visible and pronounced forms. They were descending to the ground slowly but surely, and they appeared to be technological marvels. The five smaller ones were all identical bulkier and seemed to be used mainly for transporting cargo, such as food or supplies. The two larger ones were identical as well, and, shockingly, were bristling with what looked like cannons of sorts. What looked like a control center sat atop the levitating spacecraft, as it slowly travelled along the ground, causing the air and ground to rumble.

But it was the largest ship that struck fear into all the animals that saw it.

Not only was it bristling with even more cannons and weaponry than the other two, but it was what was within the ship itself that made all the wildlife run for the hills.

Inside were what appeared to be ponies. The very same ponies that the wildlife, sixty thousand years ago, during the Great Migration and the Last Ice Age, fought to keep off their land. And now that they were returning, virtually infinitely more powerful than they were before, there was nothing they could do but wait for the inevitable.

—————

Inside the main ship, known as the Stargazer, the Ceylonian ponies inside were being briefed as to what their assignment was. Clearly, what they were tasked to do was gain as much land as possible in this huge continent, and take down any opposition there was. Their long-term goals, however, were a bit more surprising.

According to their briefing holograms (watch-like objects projecting holograms that fit over any pony's non-dominant foreleg just above the hoof), one such long-term goal was to set up strategic outposts that would have the advantage of attacking Equestria without warning.

One unicorn stallion seemed unsure of the plan and stood up to protest. His short golden hair contrasted with his gray coat, and his bright green eyes quivered.

"Giate ihyabb pusidd impeta da?" he asked, his voice quivering.

The unicorn with a dark blue coat, black hair, and brown eyes in front, the captain of the ship and the Royal Fleet who had been ordered to send this fleet to Equestria, paused in his slow pacing to shoot a harsh glance at the young stallion. There would be no questioning his orders here. "Fase sik'ikha dygaitet," he muttered.

But the stallion continued to stand up. He knew this was wrong, he knew that it was definitely a wrong move to attack and harm civilian ponies, no matter their political position to his advanced civilization's greater power. It was morally wrong to kill mares and their foals for no reason but to instill fear into the enemy. Even if that nation were to descend into discord and chaos, mindlessly killing without discrimination was still out of the question. There could be no other purpose for these such bases and forts except to counterattack if even a single bit of territory was threatened.

Their presence would rule like an iron fist. This simply wasn't something he could live with. He glared at the captain of the ship in contempt, his muscles twitching. It would either be total war and total indigenous subjugation, or peaceful relations. He would make the captain choose.

"Poyus ikha diggep da?! Paces? Vel bellen?!" he suddenly raised his voice at him. His neck outstretched in newly uncovered hatred, as the truth of this entire operation dawned on him. Would they want peace or war?

Around him, silence reigned as the ponies stared at him. Thoughts such as Why are you resisting him?! and Are you crazy? He's going to kill you if you say another word! were echoing silently throughout the room, all in response to what this pony was doing.

Clearly, the captain had had enough. He would give this rebellious pony one last chance to get back in line or get out. "Twiare ke ikha hedim..." he muttered. His horn glowed a dull gray color when he magically withdrew his pistol within the holster on his right hind leg. He took it off of safety and aimed it directly at him, with one eye closed and the other taking careful aim.

The young officer froze where he was, but thought of the consequences and sighed. He closed his eyes and murmured a few things, before glaring back up at his superior in open rebellion. He would rather die than follow these corrupt orders.

"Ya diggep null ad'sekitt thei'ord'st!" he cried out in defiance, directly into the face of the captain.

Suddenly, all he felt was a world of pain and agony. His nervous system could detect nothing except unbearable pain, pain that his own brain was unable to comprehend. He fell to the ground as a mass of gruesome flesh and bone, the blood from his body quickly draining onto the ground. Hundreds of holes punctured through his skin and organs, and what was the last recognizable part of any sort of body gave one last twitch before the life escaped it.

The captain's gun was smoking. He narrowed his eyes at the felled soldier that he felt needed no less of a punishment.

It was quite wonderful to him how effective a depleted uranium internal shotgun shell could be to a pony. The moment the bullet hit skin, it ejected hundreds of pieces of shrapnel that did nothing but rip throughout the body. It didn't even stop there by going out the other side; whenever it hit the outer epidermis it would simply bounce right back into a random direction back into the body, ricocheting amongst every organ it had the mind to savagely impale. Only when all of its energy had been used up would it finally stop within the victim's completely helpless body.

It caused all of this mortal damage within just a half of a second.

Reeling back to the task at hand, the captain placed his destructive pistol back in his holster. His horn finally stopped glowing that dull, almost sickening gray, and he narrowed his eyes at the body. It would have to be disposed of somehow.

"Vijekwoe. Purge únkorpe. Ya enanne the'thesi ad'esite pierg. Toras..." he growled lowly. Two guards immediately followed his orders, picking up the body and bringing it out of the room, much to the horror of the other ponies, while two more guards took the others' place to clean up the blood and guts from the ground.

While they continued to do so, the ship finally settled down on the ground, the touchdown barely felt by any ponies onboard. With a nod, the captain motioned for them to go, and they did so; off they went, grabbing their weapons and readying them. They all looked almost identical, save for a bit of their coats on their faces and their hair colors; the rest of their bodies were covered by nearly identical dark blue jumpsuits, different only in the markings of rank near each pony's collar. Information about their surroundings was relayed to them through the contact lenses they wore; they acted as holographic displays that showed information only for their eyes, undetectable and unreadable by any other ponies, even if they were to look at them directly in the eye.

They were all the same indeed, and their mission was the same: establish a presence on the planet and conquer as much of the larger continent as possible.

—————

Princess Luna sighed softly. She glanced around her office, which was once Princess Celestia's, noticing the lack of sunshiney colors. Major changes had been made, including, but not limited to the aesthetic differences in her office, such as the darker atmosphere that the new curtains over the large window behind the desk provided.

Court had been cancelled "until the government is in a better state". This meant that every pony with suggestions or reports would have to have an appointment directly with the newly installed monarch, and that the diarchy that Princess Luna and her sister had once shared was now only her monarchy.

However, despite all the changes, the government would continue to run as usual. No other changes regarding the public happened, and never would happen.

A knock snapped her out of her thoughts. She sat up straighter on the cushion, fixing up her starry mane. She cleared her throat and called out, "You may enter," in as regal a voice as she could.

She was surprised by who she saw entered. In front of her was Rainbow Dash, whose eyes looked bloodshot, as if she had been crying for a while. "Hi there... Princess Luna," she sniffled a little. Her voice sounded like it hadn't been used in quite a while.

Luna stood up immediately. She was nervous, as she hadn't seen a pony of this caliber of toughness act so sad in front of anypony, especially a princess, before. "Tell me, my child. What is your problem?" she asked. Her voice, by now, was much more mature and authoritative, yet she still remained with the same mind and attitude as before the transformation.

Rainbow Dash pressed closer to her. "We're going back to Ponyville now..." she whispered quietly, her face buried into the monarch's neck, just above her chestpiece. "We're sorry we couldn't celebrate the Summer Sun Celebration when it came by... and we're sorry that all of this had to happen..." she continued. "We don't blame you or anypony else, we don't even blame Twilight Sparkle for what she did... I'm sorry all of this had to happen...!" she quivered as she restated her previous sentence in a very pleading tone.

Princess Luna suddenly thought of what she had meant. Did she know about the secret? Did she know what Twilight Sparkle had found out that had enraged her so? Maybe Twilight had told them so that she could stage a second retaliation against the Princesses? What if it was true? What if the ponies out in Canterlot were staging a revolt right now and nopony in her administration could do anything about it?

But she forced herself to calm down, taking deep and quick audible breaths that Dash was able to pick up on quickly. She glanced up at the Princess of the Night. "Princess Luna, are you okay?" she asked, and suddenly noticed how tall and much more professional and regal she looked. She had never been this way before, had she? Her legs started to quiver but she quickly stopped them.

"It is nothing," Luna nodded down at the full-spectrumed Pegasus and smiled to reassure her. "I am sorry to see you go so soon, and yes, I do agree, it is a pity that we were not able to celebrate the Summer Sun Celebration as we should have. I should be sorry, as it was our fault, not your fault, that Twilight Sparkle had to leave. Perhaps you will see her again, won't you?" she suggested.

Rainbow shrugged. "I guess we might..." she muttered quietly, her voice cracking a bit. She bowed down low before paddling back towards the door, not once turning her flank to the Princess. "Thank you for your time, Princess. I hope we'll get to see you soon in the future..." she scooted out of the door and closed it gently with her teeth pulling the small rope on the handle.

The door closed shut, uttering a soft bump as it did so. Princess Luna was once more alone in the darker room, and she found herself beginning to think furiously. She had just realized, in spite of all the turmoil and chaos that had prevailed the past few days in her mind and the relative calmness of Canterlot and the rest of Equestria outside, that she had not seemed to mind the fact that one of the most celebrated holidays in Equestria, the Summer Sun Celebration, had not been celebrated at all. Instead, a few halls in the Canterlot Castle, including the Great Hall, had been completely wrecked as a direct result of Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia's battle.

She also began to think about the implications of the leader that millions once looked up to, leaving her post for an unknown span of time. Perhaps they thought that Princess Luna was an incompetent ruler? Perhaps she was looked down upon by members of her own administration? Perhaps, even, all the ponies of Canterlot were beginning to resent their new ruler, the very same pony that tried to overthrow their own Princess two thousand years ago? Perhaps.

Ever since Princess Celestia had left, the situation seemed more and more desperate. Luna needed help, yet she did not want to ask for guidance. She believed, she continuously told herself that she could handle it all, and yet she had begun to fall behind on her duties. She would have to step it up if she was to continue her sister's legacy.

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by a piercing noise coming from a small white ball sitting motionless in front of her where she was lying down. She breathed another sigh and fixed her appearance once more, before tapping on the ball with her onyx-horseshoed hoof.

The ball immediately came to life, glowing a deep electric blue before a hologram shot out from it, projected a convenient distance from the Princess's face. In it was a live holocall, and on the other side was the captain of the Royal Fleet of Celestia of Ceylon.

Upon seeing her, he bowed his head low. He reached forward, and pressed a button not in the frame of the call, and cleared his throat before speaking.

"Greetings, Newly Appointed Princess Luna of the Moon," he said in an unstable-sounding voice. "I am sorry if the quality of this translation is not as proper as it could be, as we have had problems gathering a usable amount of your language to translate. If need be, we may still converse with you in our traditional language. It is not a problem for us."

Luna shook her head. "That will not be necessary, Commander...?" she prompted for his name.

He bowed his head low. "My name is Arcane Thunder, Commander of the Royal Fleet," he replied in a very respectful tone of voice. He nodded to her response to his question. He proceeded to tell her the news she so rightfully needed to hear.

"We are within your atmosphere now, Milady. We have landed on the continent of Abdvarsé as you have commanded, and we are proceeding to establish a temporary colony to allow a base of operations to aid your country of Equestria if need be. We have thousands of ponies, all armed and ready to execute your orders," he finished.

Princess Luna nodded solemnly. She gazed intently at him. "So this is it, is it not?"

Arcane Thunder grunted in reply. "This seems to be it," he couldn't help but smile. "We have returned..."

Luna stared down at the ground in front of her. Had she just done something that would change the course of Equestrian history forever?

—————

"How long do you think it's gonna take the train to get here, Applejack?" Rainbow Dash asked sadly, sitting down sadly on her rump next to the Friendship Express's train tracks. She was rather close to the train, and she arched her head over towards the rail heading to Ponyville.

Applejack was leaning against a pillar. She heaved a soft sigh. "Don' know, don' care a darn bit. Now that Twi's gone, what're we all supposed to be doin'?" she muttered, half to her breath. She didn't want to seem unsure, but some of her personal feelings began to leak out, earning her her friends' attention.

Pinkie didn't look too swell, either. Her hair seemed to be on the edge of deflating, and her eyes were huge and watery when anypony looked at her. "T-Twilight's... g-g-gone!!" she whimpered, beginning to cry and sniffle sadly. "I... I can't b-believe it, that she... that she's... gone...!" she began to wail louder. "WHYYY-YYY??!"

Rarity flinched back at her friend's sudden outburst. She sighed and cautiously moved to give her a gentle hug. "Don't worry a bit, sweetheart, your friends are here for you, and nothing will change that! I'm here, for goodness sakes! You don't have to cry!" she tried her best to crack a smile but ended up failing, falling back into the sad mood with the rest of them.

For a while, the six of them remained silent. Spike leaned up against Applejack, eyes unfocused and breathing erratic.

Though it had already been three days since Twilight Sparkle exiled herself, the five ponies and baby dragon were still grieving for her loss. They had no idea where the rogue unicorn had gone, let alone what would happen next. Maybe they would just live their lives normally, like they always have?

But what would life be without the crazy, hypersensitive unicorn librarian living in Ponyville's oversized tree? What would life be without the scientific adventures they once had, the rescue of Spike from the teenage dragons, and the horribly-gone-wrong Grand Galloping Gala?

They didn't know, but they would have to live with such a reality now.

While they waited, which could have been anywhere from a few millenia to an hour, a fog had begun to descend upon the city of Canterlot and its outlying areas providing aid to foreign travellers. The air around the six friends began to grow colder and damper, seeming to hang on their shoulders like the weight of the world. It didn't help aid their already-dampened spirits.

Far away, they could hear the toot toot of the Friendship Express's horn. Rainbow Dash's eyes focused properly in the distance, and she could see a faint light illuminating the fog. With a sigh, she grabbed her sky-blue rainbow-decorated bag in her mouth, lifting it up and motioning to the others that the train had come. The rest followed suit, with Rarity waiting with legs crossed next to Rainbow Dash. Spike was carrying her excessive luggage.

The train coasted to a stop perfectly in front of them, and the doors opened on the sides of the colorful train cars. The ponies plodded inside one by one, with Spike following last, wobbling as a result of carrying Rarity's luggage. Once they were inside, they settled down and placed their baggage up above their heads, before taking comfortable seats.

The doors closed and the train lurched forward, continuing on back home. After all, nothing all that important had happened on this fateful day.

—————

Twilight Sparkle, please don't be angry at your friends for my transgressions. This is all my fault, and you know it. The only pony you have to blame is me.

Former Princess, Celestia of Canterlot, made her way through the dense overgrowth of the Everfree Forest. She was far away from Zecora's home, farther from Ponyville, and farther still from Canterlot. In fact, her impeccable sense of direction told her that she was at the westernmost edge of the forest itself, a hundred or so miles from Manehatten in contrast to the few hundred miles farther away that Ponyville was.

She hadn't eaten anything in five days, and her once regal frame was now slender. Her ribs had begun to show on her dirty chest, and her sides were covered in scratches that cut through her coat and pierced her skin, if only barely. The magic that had been bestowed upon her by the most brilliant of their arcane scientists had been given to her sister, and the rest used to protect the castle of Canterlot itself. She had given everything to make sure that her country would continue to prosper as it always did.

But she knew that that wasn't enough. She faced the much more apparent probability of her own empire crumbling along with her, and she couldn't bear something that strong. She sniffled a bit and blinked her tears away, continuing through the dense forest that scratched her skin and made her shiver in coldness.

Twilight Sparkle, where have you gone? Why won't you come back, at least even to your friends? I can understand the reasons why you hurt me and rejected me, but why have you rejected your friends as well? Even Luna, who had no choice but to go along with everything that had happened so far? Why, oh, my most faithful student, have you done this to them? They've done nothing to you. Please don't break your friendship with the others... that would be the beginning of the end for everything I've lived for and done...

Celestia suddenly collapsed in a tight clearing in the forest, the soil underneath her immediately staining her already smudged coat a deeper color of brown. A soft groan of pain escaped from her mouth, and she could do nothing but rest her head on the same ground that dirtied her.

Pain radiated from a small part of her left hind thigh. She bit her lip in pain and couldn't help but whimper. Her muscle pulsed in agony; she had overworked it as a result of walking tirelessly for so long and had pulled it. She leaned back and broke a pile of slender leaves off of a tree nearby with her still-brilliant yellow magic. She brought them close to her face and began to weave them together until they were nearly as strong as silk fabric. She then took the custom-made "cloth" mixture of cellulose and other fibres, wrapping them around her thigh just below the injury to help support her leg. Whatever she had to do, she just had to keep going. She had to at least to get to Manehatten if she were to have a chance of surviving.

What shall I do now?