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// Celestia's Last Sunrise 
// Story: Celestia's Last Sunrise 
// by Unoriginal 
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Celestia loved to sit alone.
She may like to sit with her sister, Luna, or her closest friend Twilight Sparkle, or maybe even Princess Cadence, if she was around, which wasn't very often.
But in the end, she loved to sit alone, to look back through her memories, and smile at all the wonderful things that had happened in her glorious lifetime as ruler of Equestria.
And even some of the sadder moments of her lifetime that she had gone through: Princess Cadence losing Shining Armour, Herself losing Starswirl, a great unicorn who's magic changed the world. And even watching Twilight cry herself to sleep, the nights that she lost her friends.

Celestia took a deep breath of the cool, dry night air, it was wonderfully relaxing.

She gazed out from the balcony she was sitting on, it shadowed Canterlot, and hung out over the edge of the city. From here she could see almost all of Equestria; Ponyville down below, Cloudsdale floating in the distance, with its distinct rainbow waterfalls, cascading from the clouds above. she saw the Smokey Mountain in the distance with its snow capped peak. To her left, she noticed a large expanse of sand, known as the San Palamino Desert, and to her right, the faint outline, of the Frozen North and the Crystal Mountains.
She grinned to herself, she had visited all of these places in her lifetime, including the ones beyond her view, and she had adored all the trips, of course some were better than others, but that was beside the point.

Celestia gazed up at the Moon, it seemed to shine brighter tonight, than it had ever seemed before.

'Good job Luna' Celestia mumbled to herself, as she continued to gaze at it. Its shimmering surface in all its glory shone down on her with a brightness that seemed to match a daylight sun. 

But that only distracted her for a few seconds before she returned to her previous gaze across the landscape.
'Such a beautiful land' she thought to herself, before hearing steps behind her.

'Princess, are you ok?' asked Twilight Sparkle. 'You've been standing out here all night, shouldn't you get some rest before raising the sun?' 

Twilight hadn't heard the news yet, obviously why she wasn't showing any signs of sadness or depression.

'Twilight' Celestia began 'I won't need any more rest once I raise the sun this morning.'

'What do you mean princess?' Twilight asked, obviously curious about what she meant? 'Is something happening?'

Celestia held back a tear, this was going to be hard.

'Look Twilight, I need you to listen to me very carefully now, and let me finish, understand?' 

'Yes princess' was the response

'I have been the Ruler of Equestria for thousands of years now, and I have seen so many ponies be born, live their lives, and die, and then I have watched their children do the same, and then their children, and so on. What i'm trying to say, is that, like my parents Twilight, I have served my time on Equestria.'

Celestia could see Twilight's face go pale as she finished that sentence.

'I must pass my role of Princess of Equestria and of the Sun to the alicorn of my choice, and whomever this alicorn is, they must understand the role they are taking on and be ready to take on the responsibilities that come with it.  Do you understand?'

Twilight could only manage a small nod in return.

'Good' Celestia began 'Because when I raise the Sun for the last time in less than an hour, it will be the last time you will ever see me, and a new princess will be in the position where I was'

Twilight by this point was barely holding back tears and was facing the ground.

'Twilight, I want you to take my place in this world when i'm gone.'

Twilight looked up at her Princess with tears in her eyes, and drooping ears.

'M..me? But w..why me?' Twilight asked?

Celestia allowed herself a little smile 

'Because Twilight, I believe that, if anypony in Equestria deserves to be Ruler of Equestria and the Sun. It should be you, no one else deserves it more than you, and... after all you've been through...' Celestia stopped there as she could see more tears welling up in Twilight's eyes. She lay a comforting wing around Twilight and pulled he in close 'They would have been proud of you Twilight'

Twilight gave a small smile on her face 'Yeh...I guess they would be.' she said as she looked up at her princess, who looked back at her with comforting eyes and a smile on her face.

Twilight then wrapped her hooves around Celestia and gave her an affectionate hug, which Celestia kindly returned.


***


They must have been there for a while, because the next sound in the room was the voice of Luna standing behind Celestia.

'Sister...It is time.'

Twilight let go of Celestia and gave her a quick nod of her head, before following her onto the same balcony as before.

Celestia stood on the balcony once again, gazing over Equestria for one last time, before nodding to Luna.

Her mighty horn glowed with that golden aura for a few seconds before a familiar light began to shine on the horizon as the sun began to ascend its way into the sky, stopping just as it was halfway above the sea.

Celestia's horn glowed once more, but with a bit more intensity this time, she started to ascend into the air, purely by magic, and ever so slowly a white glow began to envelop Celestia, as she looked around and down below to Canterlot she could notice ponies of all races gathering together to watch what was going on. 

Twilight was looking directly into Celestia's eyes the whole time, watching her as the white glow began to grow in size around her body, and as the white glow began to make it's way up towards Celestia's neck, she noticed Celestia looked straight into her eyes and mouthed her last sentence to her

'Thank you.'

Celestia's head soon became engulfed with the glow and it started pulsating outwards, and growing, but only for a few seconds before exploding outwards in a slow but obvious release of energy. It passed through Luna with no issues, but when it reached Twilight, she felt a force enter her body, a power essentially, as the wave washed over her.
Nothing appeared to have happened to Twilight, but when she asked Luna about it, she replied with

'You have just inherited Celestia's power to control the Sun, as she said she would, and now it is your new role to control the Sun, and watch over the inhabitants of Equestria.'

Twilight had expected this, and as she looked over to where her princess was a few moments ago, all that remained was her crown, lying the right way up on the floor.

Twilight didn't pick it up, not now, for now she looked over at the Sun, at Celestia's last Sunrise in Equestria. 

And it was beautiful.