Question for you all.

Let's assume that both Celestia and Luna decided they had enough of working their magic and didn't want to do the sun/moon thing for a while. Could Twilight or Cadance take over? If so, how long could each maintain it, and to what effectiveness?

Comments

[Phaoray]

Well, we saw Twilight raise the sun and moon in the last episode, but she had all of Cadence, Luna's, and Celestia's powers at that time. She struggled alot, but I think with time she would have done it much easier. So I think she could prolly raise/lower one of them each day on her own, and if she had to do two she'd not be able to for a very long time, maybe a week before magic exhaustion hit?

I think somewhere in the show or comics they say that the unicorns used to raise and lower them when Alicorns weren't around. And Twi is pretty buff by now. I'd probably say Twi and Cadence together could take over, but so much of their magic would be consumed daily for it, that they wouldn't have much to squander afterwards, at least for the first few years of doing it. It's not their special talent like it is For Luna and Celestia, so I assume it'd be alot harder on them.

Kinda hard to calculate Cadence's and Twilight's power, only they do not seem nearly as strong as Luna or Celestia. It kind of depends on how you have magic in your world too. Could the reason Celestia and Luna are taller then the other Alicorn's be they they have more power? Or is it just an age thing? Luna being tiny right after NMM was removed could indicate it is a way to scale power, as after some recovery time she comes back much taller.

Basically, I'd say it can be as easy or as hard on them as you need it to be/want it to be in your story, no real hard rules in it from what I can figure out.

[Homunclus]

I have a theory, which you can read here if you want, where the idea is that it is the tree of Harmony that moves the sun and the moon, and that Celestia's and Luna's cutie marks represent their connection to the tree (you can see both of their cutie marks carved in the tree), or more specifically with the part of the tree that controls the sun and the moon.

The main advantage of this theory is that it explains how Celestia and Luna can use the elements of harmony.

So the idea is that in the same way Celestia and Luna can use the elements Twilight should be able to raise the sun and the moon. Not because she is a powerful unicorn, but because of her connection with the tree of Harmony. Or perhaps she would need the help of her friends to do so.

[Gammer14]

Unicorns used to do it before Celestia and Luna took over. So, I'm guessing that, with a little practice, Twilight and Cadance would have no problem raising the Moon and Sun.

[ugugg93]

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Assuming yes, let's say that it was BOOM princesses gone. How long would it take for either or both to be able to take over?

[Gammer14]

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I think Cadance could step up really quickly. She's been around Celestia for a while, and has a decent amount of experience in leading (Crystal Empire). Which means Cadance would probably take over for Celestia in raising the sun, and running the kingdom during the day. It would probably take less than a day for her to take over, but she'll probably need to spend the first two days helping Twilight, So I'll say two days.

I think it'll take Twilight a little while to take over. She easily has the magical ability to raise the moon, and once she gets settled she is a natural leader. But, she also has a very close relationship with Celestia, and has a tendency to freak out in sudden stressful situations. If Celestia suddenly disappeared it would take Twilight a little bit of time to get over her loss, then Twilight will of course freak out over the fact that she is now a co-leader of Equestria, and in charge of the night. Another fact to add here is that Twilight has no idea how to lead a country. She's never been in these situations, so she has no idea how to handle all the duties Celestia and Luna have.

Twilight does have one major thing going for her though, Cadance. Cadance is an anchor for Twilight, she always seems to know how to help Twilight, and really does a good job of keeping her calm and preventing her from having major freak outs. If Cadance spends a lot of time helping Twilight when the princesses first disappear, then I think she can greatly shorten the time it'll take Twilight to get herself in a right condition mentally, so that she can take over.

With Cadance helping Twilight, I'm guessing it'll probably take a day or two, for Twilight to get into the right mental condition, and another four to five days for her to research everything she needs to know about running the country (because we both know that Twilight will want to do as much research as possible before she takes over.) So about a week. Once she is ready, she will of course take over the moon, and the night.

[ugugg93]

2182570 And if it was just one of them? Like, only Cadance or only Twilight needing to do BOTH?

[Gammer14]

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Cadance:

If Cadance was thrown into a full leadership role right away, then I'd say a day at the most. But, raising the sun and moon on her own, while running a kingdom, would quickly tire her out. So, she could probably only maintain a pace like this for a week or two at the most. Then she would most likely crash and burn, and would probably need another week or two to rest and recover. If she repeated this over and over, she would most likely kill herself. But, if she somehow does survive, then it would probably take her 5 to 10 years to take over.

If Cadance gradually took over leadership, and practiced and developed her leadership skills, as well as her magical stamina to raise both the sun and the moon, then it would probably take her two years to fully take over.

Twilight:

Without the help of Cadance, Twilight would probably be a train wreck emotionally. First she'd be really depressed over the loss of Celestia. She would also be really scared and nervous about taking over the kingdom, since she has no experience, and no idea what to do. She'd probably have a nervous breakdown, which would only make her more depressed. I think it would take her months, maybe even years to get herself in the right mental condition to lead the country. Then she would of course need time to study and learn how to rule the country, time to master raising the sun and moon, and of course time to adjust to running the country on her own. (Basically, once Twilight was in the right mental conditon she'd gradually take over leadership, like the Cadance example above.) In this case, It'd probably taker her 5 to 10 years to fully take over the kingdom.

If Twilight was thrown into leadership right away? Well, let's just say that Equestria would be doomed. Twilight would be way too mentally unstable to rule over Equestria, and would quickly destroy everything. Discord would probably enjoy this though, because everything would be in chaos.

[Blackbriar]

Probably a year+, and here's why:

You have Cadence to run the Celestia Day to Day stuff like court, parades, and rulings.
You have Twilight with the RAW POWAH to move the celestial bodies, the sense of timing and schedules to keep things on track, and the ability to power nap and handle both while running the Royal Guard, visiting other nations, and generally being the Generalissimo of the Equestrian fighting forces.

Which makes me think this is how Tia and Lulu got the job. . .hmmmmm