Anarchy

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.”