Dawn of the Final Day

"What happened to you? You used to be so full, so bright."

...

"None of them remember you the way you used to be. To think, this will be their final memory of you; a weak, broken shell of your former self."

...

"I wish they could have seen you in your prime. Maybe then they would understand what they've lost. What we've lost."

...

"What I've lost."

Luna was right. I've made a terrible mistake.

"According to these quarterly reports..."

"Uh huh. Yep. Alright."

Blah blah blah. Noise noise noise. I can't believe I'm actually wasting my last day listening to this pointless drivel. I wonder what Luna is up to? Probably off galavanting around Equestria by now, getting into who knows what. Maybe I should have gone with her.

"Budgetary constraints have had a significant negative impact on biomagical research..."

"No, really? That's a shame."

What does she know, anyways? Some of us have a country to run. That doesn't just stop because the world is ending. If anything, this is when my ponies need me the most. If she knew even one thing about responsibility, she would understand that. I have a duty to protect my subjects, especially in these dark times. Yeah, that's it. It's my duty.

"This bill will improve foreign relations while also..."

"Sounds good. Do that."

It's my duty to listen to this garbage. AGH, I'm so BORED. Luna had the right idea. They're never going to remember any of this anyways. I should just get up and leave. It's been so long since I've had a real vacation, and this is my last chance. I should just fly away and never look back. Sure, it'll probably cause some sort of panic, but so what? None of them will remember it when they're... dead.

"Princess?"

I won't remember either. What does it matter if my last moments are of joy or of misery? Besides, how can she possibly expect me to enjoy myself right now? She doesn't understand what I'm going through. She doesn't understand what it's like. The sun isn't like the moon, I can't just get a new one when it breaks. How many moons has she gone through? Fifteen? Sixteen? What's so special about the moon anyways? It's just a big rock. Ooh, look at me, I'm the Princess of the world's biggest rock! Whoops, it got destroyed again. I guess, I don't know, the tides are going to be screwed up until I find a new one? Whoop de doo, half the planet is going to get a little moist for a week. Dumb rock.

"Princess Celestia."

And don't get me started on the stars. Each one is supposed to be like a miniature sun, but since when has an entire planet been wiped out because one of the stars went out? Oh sure Luna, take all of the safe celestial bodies and leave me with the ticking time bomb. That's fair!

"Princess!"

"WHAT! What do you want!"

And I just lost it. Did I do the fiery hair thing? Uh huh, yep, those are ashes on the ceiling. Great, now I feel like an ass. No offense.

"I am so sorry about that. I've had a lot on my mind lately." Well now, this is kind of weird. Weren't there normally supposed to be petitioners lined up at the door?

"Excuse me, um... Rollerball, was it?" Oh lord, I hope I got that name right. Whatever happened to naming your foal something respectable like Quill Pen? I suppose those have been out of use for a while now, but it had such a nice ring to it. Fountain Pen wasn't so bad, but Ballpoint was kind of pushing it, and now we have silliness like Rollerball to deal with? I suppose if there's anything to be said for the end of the world, it's that we won't have to deal with whatever ridiculous name comes after Rollerball.

"Um... actually, Rollerball is my cousin. My name is Quill Pen."

Oh, you have got to be kidding me. Really?

"I'm sorry, but I have to ask. How did you come by such an antiquated name?"

"Oh um... well, my mother is something of a history buff. She's devoted her life to studying the Elements of Harmony, and named me after the twelfth bearer of Honesty. She never said why she chose that one specifically. I guess she just liked the name."

That would do it then. I suppose the names of past bearers would be popular. I can never remember all of them, there have been so many over the years. Gosh, come to think of it, the earliest one I can remember off hand is uh... okay well Quill Pen is cheating since I was just reminded of her, but yeah, you get the idea. It's terrible, I know, but sometimes I can barely remember what I had for breakfast last year.

I'm rambling again.

"Quill Pen, right. Again, sorry about earlier, I've been a little stressed lately. Now uh... what happened to all of the petitioners?"

"Oh, well you looked like you really needed a break, so Fourth Amendment closed court early and made them all leave."

"Without asking me?"

"You kind of zoned out for about a half hour there. Also, Laser Jet seemed kind of upset at some of your responses near the end there."

"Really? What did I say?"

"Well, you ended trade relations with the seaponies because one of the petitioners claimed that they seemed kinda fishy.  Let's see... you agreed to cut funding towards agricultural research in favor of um... natural enhancement pharmaceuticals. Oh, and at one point you declared that you fully support childhood illnesses."

"Curing them?"

"Ah... no."

Fudgesicles.

What a fool I had been. I had spent so much of my time and resources trying to make my subjects happy in their final moments, and they weren't even the ones who would suffer in the end. The current generation had grown fat and lazy under my rule. They wanted for nothing, and had lost the drive to better themselves for they no longer needed to. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I began to hate them for letting me coddle them so. I know, it sounds stupid, right? I wasn't exactly in a right state of mind at the time. Fear does crazy things to a pony, or so I've heard.

I hated them. They lived only for the here and now. So selfish. So greedy. They would take and take, as much as I had to give, and leave nothing for those that came after. What kind of future could their children have then? I had finally realized, it wasn't the present that needed protecting, but the future. If I couldn't save them from their grim fate, then the least I could make their short lives comfortable. That couldn't happen though, if things stayed as they were.

It would be a challenge to whip Equestria back into shape, and so I took it as one. Perhaps, that was not the best way to look at it. I started with the simplest and probably most hated move of my political career; no more government handouts. I needed to get my ponies back on their own hooves, working to make their own bits again. It took a while for the economy to stabilize, but ponies always find a way to pull through. Most ponies do, anyways. Some weren't too keen on the radical idea of earning money through hard work. Those pones decided to stick to the old ways of simply taking what they believed they deserved.

I was so angry at them. How dare they threaten the perfect future I was trying to build? I was doing it all for them! I was doing it so that their descendants wouldn't have to live in the garbage dump that they would have left behind, and they just didn't seem to care. I wouldn't let them ruin my hard work. I couldn't. I had let them get away with it before, and I had seen the results. Never again.

So, I stopped them.

As to what happened, I won't get into the details. It's a painful memory, one I never wish to relive, but that I'll never forget.  I believe most historians refer to that time as The Dark Ages. It was an era of fear and tyranny the likes of which Equestria has never seen. The irony, I suppose, is that everything I did was in an effort to make my ponies feel safe. I just wanted them to live happy lives. I thought that I could secure the future by ruling the present, and I devoted my every thought to the long term.

Luna could see what I was doing, of course. She was always the smart one. She tried to stop me, to show me the error of my ways, but I wouldn't listen. I refused to believe that I could be wrong. I was crafting the perfect future for my subjects. How could she possibly understand?

I never gave her the chance to understand. She didn't know what I knew. Maybe things would have been different if I had opened up to her. Maybe. That doesn't matter now. Words had failed, and she had few options left at her disposal. I don't blame her for what she did. I probably would have done the same in her position.

I had never been on the receiving end of the Elements of Harmony before. I always thought it would hurt.

I'm not sure why.

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