I woke up when the morning sunbeams assaulted my eyelids and forced me from my sleep. I really wish whoever was rising the sun now would get the timing right. It feels like it shouldn’t be up for another hour. Or maybe I just wanted more sleep. I don’t know what Celestia’s schedule was for raising the sun. Whoever was raising it probably did though.
I guess I should explain just what the buck I’m talking about. Well, it started a year ago when the unthinkable happened: Princess Celestia died. I know, I’m just as surprised as you are. And here’s the crazy part: nopony knows how she died. It was a complete mystery. All anypony knew is that one night, after she traded places with Luna, she went in her bedchambers and was found in there dead the next morning. It couldn’t have been old age because Alicorns live forever. She wasn’t stabbed or harmed in any way because her body was in perfect condition. The most popular theory seems to be that somepony had poisoned her. But Alicorns have a super immune system that makes most poisons useless on them. And the few that were effective, the princesses had destroyed all the necessary ingredients used for them centuries ago. Though poisoning is the biggest theory, nopony could confirm it. Nopony would let (or even wanted) an autopsy to be conducted on the princess. They wanted her to be buried unscarred.
When she was buried everypony in Equestria came. Canterlot was flooded with ponies who came to pay their respects to the princess. You couldn’t walk a single step without bumping into somepony. My friends and I were lucky since we were the elements of harmony; so we were able to stand close and actually get to see the princess be buried, unlike most other ponies who were almost a mile away.
For weeks Equestria was in a state of sorrow. Every day when you woke up you'd instantly become depressed because of how glum everypony was. But the sorrow eventually passed and ponies realized that they needed somepony to blame for Celestia’s murder. Hooves were immediately pointed at Discord. But my friends and I knew better; Discord has grown to love the princess as much as any pony did. Besides, I don’t think he had it in him to kill anypony. Drive them crazy, sure, but not kill. Then some ponies got the crazy notion that it was Luna who did it. Most ponies immediately called bullshit on this. Luna loved her sister more than all of the ponies in Equestria put together. But those accusing Luna of the murder kept trying to prove it, and they grew in numbers at an alarmingly fast rate.
Their numbers grew so large that they formed an entire organization dubbed "The Celestial Avengers". They did everything in their power to convince ponies that they were correct and Luna was indeed Celestia’s murderer. Luna became scared of this group and what they could do. She did the only thing she could think to do: ban any and all activities of, and relating to, The Celestial Avengers. But this only served to draw further suspicion at Luna and fueled the group’s ideals more. Things got out of hoof after that. Riots and protest began to break out. Harsh insults were shouted at Luna. Ponies even went as far as plotting to destroy the moon.
Then the day everypony in Equestria would remember came. The entire city of Canterlot had broken out into a riot and had advanced to the royal palace. They shouted for Luna to be dethroned and executed. Luna came out of the palace to try her best to stop the madness. But when she spoke to address the rioters she was only met with more yelling and harsher insults. Not even her Equestrian Voice could stop the crowd. Then one of the rioters pushed his way passed the guards and rushed at Luna. The princess was so surprised and unprepared for this that she acted on instinct. Without thinking she instantly struck her attacker down. For an instant, everything stood still. Everypony was silent and stared at the scene in horror. Then the rioting started up again, stronger than ever before. The ponies broke the guards’ defenses and all rushed at Luna. She fled from the palace; and nopony ever saw her again.
That was it; Equestria was finished. It now had no governing body to rule it. Celestia was dead and Luna was sent into a forced exile. Twilight and Cadence tried to step forth and take the throne; but nopony would accept them as their rulers. Equestria fell into a state of complete and total anarchy. Nothing was the same after that. You’d think that lawlessness wouldn’t affect ponies that much; you’d think you could have a little more faith in them. But that sadly wasn’t the case. The crime rates all over Equestria shot up after that day. Stores and homes were robbed all over the place. The nicest, sweetest ponies you knew were now forced to be tough and ready for a fight at any time. And ponies started to be murdered left and right.
My friends and I knew that we had to stick together; but that sadly wasn’t what happened. You see, we got into this argument over our priorities. Twilight said that we needed to go to Canterlot and work on establishing a new government. But Applejack wasn’t going to leave Ponyville or her farm. She said she needed to stay and keep her family safe. Pinkie Pie only wanted to end the chaos that was now our world and make everypony happy again. Rarity said we all needed to leave Ponyville and start our own town and build it up into its own kingdom. I said we needed to forget about all of that and just focus on keeping ourselves and everypony we care about safe. Our conflicting ideals quickly broke into a full scaled agreement that nopony could have resolved. Fluttershy tried her best to stop us, but she eventually gave up and crept away. I haven’t seen her since.
We all went our separate ways after that. Now a year later, I’m the only one that’s left in Ponyville. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m the only pony in Ponyville at all. Everypony else had fled the town. But I didn’t want to move, I just wanted to stay here and live the rest of my live in as much peace as I could. Do I wish things could go back to the way they used to be? Buck yeah, I do. But let’s face it, that’s impossible. Everypony knew it was. Without Celestia, Equestria would be forever in a state of chaos and anarchy. And we all knew that there was no way that Celestia could come back.
But there’s this little part of me that’s been saying otherwise lately. It’s probably just my sense of hope trying to find some way for me to be optimistic. But the more I think about it, the stronger this feeling gets. It’s getting hard for me to tell myself that Celestia coming back was impossible. I keep getting this thought in my head that maybe, just maybe, there’s some way that we could set everything right again and bring the world back to the way it was.
I couldn’t take it any longer. I emerged from the ruins of my cloud house and flew down to the now barren streets of Ponyville. I could have just flown to where I wanted to go, but I felt like taking a walk. I passed Sugar Cube Corner. The windows were all broken and graffiti was sprayed all over the walls. I thought of the treats that were once baked here. I thought of the parties that used to be thrown here. I wanted them back so badly. Carousel Boutique was in a much similar state. The only times I ever went in there was when Rarity had dragged me in there to be a model for one of her dresses. She would force me into tight and itchy clothes as she told me about some rich ponies that had come into her shop the previous day. As much as I hated it, I still missed it.
After what seemed like an eternity, I finally reached my destination: Twilight’s Library. The tree it was in was now starting to decay. All of its windows were reduced to broken piles of glass. The inside wasn’t any better. The once neat library run by a pony with OCD now looked like it had been a war zone. Books were thrown off their shelves and had pages torn out of them; probably to be used to fuel fires. The book shelves were overturned and broken along with other furniture. I walked upstairs to Twilight’s room. There were a handful of books that she had kept off the library shelves for her own personal use. These books were kept in a locked chest under her bed; so I knew they would be safe from looters. Unlike looters, I knew were Twilight’s key was hidden. I went to her desk and pulled out a quill. I took the chest and inserted the quill into the lock and it opened.
There were only a couple books in here, but that included the one I was looking for. After Twilight had become an Alicorn, Princess Celestia had provided her with a book that gave her a detailed description about them. I thought that maybe, just maybe, this book could hold the answers I was looking for. When I opened the book I cursed at my luck. The entire book was written in Old Equestrian. I quickly ran downstairs and searched the mess of destroyed books. I let out a sigh of relief when I found an Old to Modern Equestrian dictionary. The book was heavily damaged and a good portion of it wasn’t readable. But from what I could get out of the book, I was able to find a heading that filled me with hope: Alicorn Anatomy.
I knew I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up because it was highly unlikely that this would contain anything that would bring Celestia back, but it was the only lead I had in my seemingly impossible quest. I needed to find somepony that could translate the rest of this book for me. As far as I knew, there were only three ponies alive that knew Old Equestrian. Nopony knows where Princess Luna is and Princess Cadence keeps the Crystal Kingdom in complete and total isolation. That only left one pony: Twilight. I had to find her.
My first step in tracking Twilight down was to look in Canterlot. Twilight had said that she had wanted to establish a new government for Equestria and the best place to do that was the capital. I slung a saddle pack onto my back and packed the book inside it along with a few essentials that I would need to make the trip. After putting a lock on the pack to keep it safe from pick pockets I set out on my trip. Canterlot was in easy flying distance from Ponyville for me, so the trip didn’t take that long.
Even though I hadn’t been to the city in a year I already had a guess on what it would be like: the streets baron save for thugs and muggers walking around picking fights with one another. Windows being broken, whatever stores that were stupid enough to stay open being robbed. You know, like every other city in this messed up anarchy. But I was surprised to find out that that wasn’t the case.
The streets of Canterlot were surprisingly populated. And the ponies wore expressions of a surprising amount of content. From the looks of this place you’d think that nothing had ever happened. Well, maybe that egghead had actually done it. Maybe she had formed a new Equestrian government. I made my way to the royal palace to see if Twilight was there. When the guards stopped me at the gates I asked if I could see Princess Twilight. They said that they didn’t know who I was talking about.
“You don’t know who I’m talking about?” I said, annoyed and thinking that these ponies were playing dumb with me. “Princess Twilight Sparkle. You know, the first unicorn to become an Alicorn in like, ever.”
“I’m afraid I still don’t know who you are talking about, ma’am.” The guard said in an almost robotic tone. “But there are no more princesses. Canterlot is run by the Inner Circle of Ponies and nopony else is permitted inside the royal palace.”
I thought about asking if Twilight was part of this Inner Circle of Ponies but I figured I wouldn’t get any more information out of this moron. So, I decided to ask around Canterlot if anypony knew where Twilight was. To my relief, most ponies knew who I was talking about; but to my dismay, they had no idea where she was. Finally after hours of asking around I was able to get a small lead: a traveling sales pony had done business with Twilight in Manehattan.
Manehattan? Now what the buck was that egghead doing there? In any case I decided to take the lead and boarded the next train to Manehattan. There weren’t that many trains running nowadays; and those that did run were accompanied by at least a dozen hired thugs to keep it safe. Being inside a city was dangerous enough in these times, but being out of a city was even worse. Raiders from all over Equestria would ambush trains and loot them for all they’re worth. And if you’re lucky that’s all they’ll do.
When I arrived in Manehattan it fit the description of a modern city that I had described earlier. The sky seemed to grow darker as soon as I stepped off the train. I felt a chilling cold bite at my snout. This was common in most places now. The massive amounts of chaos had attracted Windigos all over Equestria. Heat was becoming a very scarce thing in most places. Snow started to fall as I left the station and walked the dangerous streets of Manehattan.
I started to ask the few ponies that I could find if they knew where Twilight was. Most ponies either ignored me or just said no. I had to bloody my hooves a couple of times with some ponies who were dumb enough to try and mug me. As the hours dragged on I still made no progress in my search for that egghead. Night fell and the coldness started to grow. I was about to search for a hotel to spend the night in when I heard a scream from an alleyway behind me. I quickly spun around to see some old mare dumb enough to even be outside having her purse taken a much larger stallion. I lifted off the ground to save the old bag, but was instead met with an all too familiar scene.
The crook was suddenly surrounded by a purple aura and pinned to the wall behind him. I looked up and saw a mare in dark blue body suit and a purple overcoat and hat on top of a building. I quickly hid behind a building and silently observed the scene. The mare flew down from the rooftop and proceeded to beat the robber up with her hoofs. When she was finished the robber was left with a broken snout and two black eyes. She picked up the old mare’s purse and returned it to the owner. The old mare tried to thank her hero, but she was already gone.
That’s when I made my move. I jolted from the ground and up to the rooftops. I was quickly able to spot the masked mare flying stealthily close to the rooftops. I followed her unnoticed back to an old apartment building. She silently slipped in the window and I quickly followed after her.
“Never thought I’d see you again, Mare-Do-Well.” I said, making the masked pony jump. She turned around and let out a sigh of relief when she saw me.
“Oh, it’s only you.” Mare-Do-Well removed her mask to reveal the face of the pony I had been searching for. Twilight looked at me with a puzzled expression. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Answer my question.”
“Looking for you.”
“Why?”
“Answer mine first.”
“What?”
“Why are you in Manehattan being Mare-Do-Well? What happened to trying to establish a new government for Equestria?”
Twilight sighed. “Sit down and let me tell you my story.”
After Luna had fled Canterlot I knew that Equestria without a government would result in complete chaos. I wanted you mares to help me establish a bureaucracy; I was sure that all six of the Elements of Harmony would provide sufficient rulers in the ponies of Equestria. But I knew that would never happen after the fight we had. So instead I went to the Crystal Kingdom ask Cadence for help in establishing a new monarchy. She jumped on the chance to restore Equestria to order. We went to Canterlot to announce the arrival of Equestria’s new regal sisters. But when we arrived at the palace, we found that it was already occupied by The Celestial Avengers.
Because of their large amount followers the leaders of the group were able to take up residents in the royal palace and run Canterlot, forming what they called "The Inner Circle of Ponies". Me and Cadence met this circle and demanded that we take the thrones. We had proven that we were more than capable of managing the day-night cycle and were skilled rulers. But the circle wouldn’t allow it.
“You two cannot be allowed to take the throne.” One of the circle members said to us. “You will not be accepted by Equestria.”
“What in my aunt’s name are you saying?!” Cadence shouted, offended. “I’ve ruled the Crystal Kingdom…”
“You LOST the Crystal Kingdom!”
“I was not even alive when the Crystal Kingdom was lost!”
“And I was the one who reclaimed it!” I added.
“That may be true, but the fact that you rule a kingdom that was lost will cause uncertainty in the ponies of Equestria. And it is not common knowledge that you were not its ruler at the time of its loss. So the rumors will still be there.” He turned to me. “And you, Twilight Sparkle. You were only a princess for two years. How could the citizens of Equestria accept someone with as little experience as you?”
“Celestia and Luna weren’t even known when they defeated Discord and assumed the throne!”
“But they had vanquished the oppressive ruler that had caused so much chaos and won the hearts of ponies.”
“And the both of us are very well known in the hearts of ponies.”
“I am sorry but we cannot allow you take the throne. Equestria is in a state of near disrepair and we cannot risk the two of you making it worse.”
“And you ponies will do any better?!” I shouted, fueled with anger and about to unleash several spells that Celestia had banned.
“We know we will do better. We have already worked on establishing a constitution for Equestria that fixes all of the mistakes that the regal sisters made.”
“Mistakes?!” Cadence looked like she was about to run him through with her horn. “My aunts were flawless leaders!”
“On the surface it may see so; but if one were to think about it long and hard they would see otherwise. Now I’m afraid we’re going to have to ask you to leave.” The unicorns and pegasi of the group stepped forward. We could have easily taken them, but it would not look good in the eyes of ponies to The Celestial Avengers’ high status. So we did the only thing we could do: headed their orders and left.
After that Cadence wanted nothing to do with their constitution, so she isolated the Crystal Kingdom from the rest of Equestria. She offered for me to stay with her and Shining Armor; she said we could rally the crystal ponies and take Equestria by force. But I declined; war was the last thing I wanted. I only want to keep ponies safe. So that’s why I came to Manehattan and began to be Mare-Do-Well again.
“And I’m making progress. According to the data, I’ve taken crime rates in Manehattan down by a fraction of a percent.” I could tell that Twilight wasn’t at all pleased with these statistics.
“So these creeps just denied you the throne and said they would do a better job than you would?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“When I get my hooves on them…”
“Now, tell me why you’re looking for me. I thought you wanted nothing to do with me.”
“I want you to read this to me.” I pulled Twilight’s Alicorn book out of my saddle pack and opened it to the section on Alicorn anatomy. “I want you to read this to me.”
Twilight looked at the passage. “Alicorn anatomy? Why would you want to know about that?”
“Just read it to me.”
“Fine…” Twilight studied the passage for a second and began to read aloud.
“In many ways, Alicorns are the same as normal ponies; with a few key differences. Firstly, an Alicorn's immune system is ten times stronger than that of an average pony’s; and their regenerative system functions at a much faster rate as well. An Alicorn’s genetic code is also a key difference. Their genetic structure is made up entirely of peace and harmony. In theory they could thrive on…”
“Wait!” I shouted. “Read that last sentence to me again.”
“Their genetic structure is made entirely up peace and harmony.”
”Harmony…” I repeated. Then it hit me like a carriage late for its delivery. “So that means that harmony is in their soul? It’s what they’re made of?”
“To put it in layman’s terms, yes. Why do you…oh my gosh…you’re not suggesting that we…”
“Try to use the elements of harmony to resurrect Celestia? That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.”
“Rainbow Dash, that’s crazy! There is no way that a pony can be brought back from the dead. Unicorns have tried for centuries and never once succeeded.”
“But they weren’t trying to bring back an Alicorn and they weren’t using the most powerful magical artifacts in Equestria.”
Twilight was trying to process what I was saying to her. “Rainbow…even if this could somehow work, we’d need all of the elements.”
“Well, mine’s back at my cloud house. Do you have yours?”
“Yes.” She motioned over to a safe in the far corner of the room. I could tell it was sealed with some sort of spell along with its deadlock. “But we still have no idea where the other four are. And we need everypony else to activate them.”
“My guess is that they took theirs with them when they left for wherever it is they went. If we can find them I’ll sure they’ll all be more than happy to help try and bring Celestia back.”
“Fine,” Twilight said in defeat. “I can tell that you’re dead set on this.”
“Buck yeah!”
“Ok, but I’m not going to leave Manehattan. I need to keep it safe from crime. You’re going to have to find everypony on your own.”
