Celestia and Luna are killed and Twilight, Cadence, and Shining Armour attempt to rule in their place
When the eternal di-archs of Equestria are suddenly and brutally assassinated, the country becomes wracked with grief and unstable, and the celestial bodies stop moving. In an attempt to provide stability, leadership, and a solution to the problems that keep cropping up, Twilight and Cadenza take up the now empty role of the Equestrian Diarchs.
This may read more history like than anything, and will not be very focused on the day to day of the characters
It is not often, almost never in fact, that ponies think of the death of their beloved diarchs but when they do they think only of the grief for those we loved them and their plans. For example, there is a night creature, a vampiric unicorn, who mastered stealth magicks and it's use in assassinations, despite Equestria being a place with very few contracts. This unicorn, whoever it was, managed to sneak into the castle entirely undetected and kill the sleeping sister, who was Celestia at the time since her first attack was in the middle of the night. In the same night but now near the end of it, with a creeping twilight that would last weeks, she would follow the tired and sleepy night time princess to her room, awaited her to sleep, then killed and dismembered her as well. Because of this and the real military threat Equestria would soon face, every guard in Canterlot and for that matter in all of Equestria would stay on high alert for the next several years
It did not take long for ponies to notice in the castle, then Canterlot knew, then Equestria knew, then the world knew of the death of the sisters. The unicorn escaped undetected from the assassinations. Twilight sent a letter immediately to the Crystal Empire upon hearing of her mentor's death before boarding a train to Canterlot. She would arrive there and await them several days before Cadenza and Shining Armour would show up. Their arrival from the train was greeted with much more ceremony, as the ponies of Canterlot with few exceptions had assumed Cadenza would take the place of the diarchs, in combination with Prince Blueblood, for however long he was around. These plans were of course shunted by the combined decision of Cadence and Twilight, Blueblood would be getting nothing.
While the new diarchs were racing to meet each other a threat to their reign had already organized itself, and the Empire of the Night was very intent on stopping Sparkle from being a ruler of Equestria. These creatures of the night, vampires, werewolf ponies, were afraid of a continued persecution of their kind under Equestrian law because of Twilight, whom they figured would want to keep everything Celestia did and was doing in place. The headquarters of this rebellious empire would be just on the other side of the Canterlot Valley, with just mountains blocking the path between them and Canterlot.
These night creatures took roughly two days to gather and organize into a collective, a new country if you will. Led by one Shallow Waters, a thousand year old vampire with a particularly bitter grudge against the old order of Equestria. The train from the Crystal Empire pulls into the Canterlonian station, essentially empty of life aside from the conductor and the royal family of the empire. Cadenza steps out first, waving half heartedly to the crowd that had gathered to watch her move from the station to the castle. It was a somber ceremony, everypony heavy with grief and uncertainty. For many ponies in Canterlot, the well off or business owning, this crisis would mean collapse and uncertainty in the markets for no pony knows how long, not to mention what treaties might be broken by foreign powers who had treated with the princesses, and not necessarily Equestria. The two are oft spoken of interchangeably, and treaties were made with the princesses in their name rather than in the name of Equestria. Their assumption of course was that they would continue ruling for a much longer time.
So Cadenza and Shining Armour, carrying Flurry Heart between them, quietly move to meet with Twilight in the castle. They each wave a few times to the crowd but otherwise did not interact very much with them. Upon reaching the castle doors, the two guards there, also set upon by sadness and weariness, would open them instantly. The two royals find Twilight sitting upon the Celestial throne, the empty Lunar one next to her still, though when she sees them come into the throne room Twilight Sparkle stands and rushes up to hug both of the ponies "I'm so glad you made it here unharmed!"
The two hug her back before Shining Armour says, half-joking and with a small attempt at a laugh which nopony joins in "Us too, Twily, it was a very dangerous train ride..."
"I think it would be great to spend some time joking around, but I fear there are some pressing matters we need to attend to first." Cadence says after clearing her throat for attention "For one, the sun and moon need to begin moving again. The gryphon and zebra lands must be cooking right now!"
"Well, for that I thought of an easy solution!" Twilight says, rather excited at having the answer to such an important question "We give groups of unicorns the job of moving the sun or moon, maybe a few groups of each!"
"Or, just one each." Cadenza smiles softly at her friend's excitement, though it is a sad smile "But who knows how to move the sun and the moon? There isn't exactly a book on the matter, all we know is that unicorns allegedly did it before Discord showed up."
Twilight sighs out in thought, taking a few moments before she just says "Well it can't be too difficult, if the first unicorns figured it out then so can we!"
Cadence and Shining nod in agreement, and afterwards the princess looks to her captain of the guard and says "Find a bedroom for us and Flurry, and get her to sleep. She must be tired."
Shining Armour becomes the only one holding Flurry Heart in his magic as he answers "Of course dear." Then walks out of the throne room and begins to walk about the castle. He knew it well from the time he spent running the Canterlot guard under Celestia, before he and Cadenza had married. Thusly he doesn't take a long time to find his ideal room, and he was certain Cadence would love it too. A few rooms down from the sun princess's bedroom is a large room roughly the size of the royal bedroom, but decorated rather heavily in various shades of purple, with pink and sky blue laced into the purple in long lines and swirls on the bedsheet. He sets the foal-carrier down on the floor as he floats Flurry Heart out of it and onto the soft bed. A cradle could be created later today, likely by him, he thinks as he does his best to settler her down and get her to sleep. This turns out easy enough for him, as the foal falls asleep within minutes
In the throne room, after Shining leaves, the two princess mares walk themselves to the thrones as they speak to each other on the sun and moon problem. When they reach the throne, Prince Blueblood steps into the doorway of the throne room and looks at the two new rulers on the throne. He is sad, like the rest of the ponies, he did lose family after all in the attack. That, however, didn't stop him from challenging Twilight's right to rule on her first day here, and now he was here again to try asserting himself to, to him, the highest position possible in the world. His appearance in the doorway stops both princesses in their discussion, and his approach towards the throne creates a gentle apology and question from Cadence and a suspicious gaze from Twilight "We're all very sad about your aunt and her sister's death, she was as close to everypony as she was to you. But I have to ask, what are you doing in the throne room?"
Blueblood comes close to the thrones before he says "Auntie would have wanted me to help rule Equestria, and I came here to ask the two of you for an equal seat next to the two of you."
Twilight speaks up before Cadence can "Well traditionally, Equestria has only two rulers, but we can have you be on the board of advisories."
He huffs lightly and says "I'm already on that, I've been helping auntie in that way since I was ten."
Twilight frowns a little "We don't want to change too much right away, but perhaps later on.. We could use some help figuring out how we're going to get the sun and moon moving again."
At that he gives a short "Ha!" Before saying confidently "Well the rulers are to move them, of course. One each, so- er," He stops a moment then says "That would mean you two, I suppose."
"But how are we supposed to do that?" Cadence asks "Our magic isn't as powerful as theirs."
"But you are alicorns."
The princesses roll their eyes at him and Twilight says "They had a special ability to control the sun and moon. Me and Cadence might have powerful magic, but it isn't meant for moving the sun and moon."
Blueblood begins to look concerned for the first time, and the three of them continue to discuss this topic until it was thought of and agreed upon that there would need to be a group of unicorns combining their magic with a princess to move either the sun or moon, until something better could be thought of. He leaves them to talk about other things and goes off to the garden, to admire the flowers. He would later leave Canterlot for reasons unknown to the rest of the city.
Throughout Equestria's history, ponies have advocated for a republican system but this faction of republicans has always been very small and dismissed due to the benevolence of the eternals they had before. Now that those two are gone these voices are louder, and no longer are dismissed as easily, as well some carrying independence sentiments. Ponies began to think more on politics, as others still insisted on the benefits of a continued diarchy but with two ponies chosen from the masses rather than purely alicorns or by blood.
This is all not to mention the anti-equestrian sentiment brewing in the zebra and gryphon lands. For nearly 100 hours they have been baking in the sun, and all knew that it was the two horse sisters that controlled where the sun and moon went. All three envoys sent to Equestria from the gryphon empire never returned there or even reached their destination to tell of the zebra and gryphon plight, due to a storm for one, the second ran into some wild, angry, and vicious ponies who managed to bring him down, and the third simply disappeared somewhere above the clouds, never to be seen again by pony or gryphon. By the 90th hour the empires of the gryphons were ready to go over to Equestria and either force the sun controllers to begin moving it again, or simply take over that country.
The gryphon empires actual became more unified internally due to the terrible heat brought on by the constant sunshine. Their respective monarchs, of east, west, and south, did everything they could to, at first relieve and reassure citizens, then to relieve and rile up their citizens to give themselves a combined reasoning for war against the Equines and to get the renewed support of their subjects. While at first they acted independently of each other, they had their annual meeting on the third "day" of constant sun where they agreed upon a unified action. The purpose of this annual council is to resolve border disputes, keep the peace, take unified action, and create laws for the entire empire. The emperor of the west, Jorbrook, arrived first to this annual meeting. He is a tall gryphon, not lacking in strength at all, with light brown and white feathers and magenta eyes. He had a strong sense of justice and fairness, and was generally sympathetic to the average citizen, overall a nice fellow. He takes his seat at the square oaken table in one of the two side chairs and awaits his fellow emperors. The emperor of the east enters second, Karokin, who is good friends with Jorbrook. Karokin is just under what might be considered a normal height for gryphons, though this dwarfed size, especially next to Jorbrook, did not come with any less strength than his friend had. He has black feathers all the way up to his head, which is dark blue. He angers easily, and though usually kind, he doesn't let either stop him from using or knowing the best of military strategy. In addition he is a fantastic public speaker and speech writer, almost always knowing just want to say. He groans in anger and annoyance as he enters the room and goes to take his seat at the table "Damn those Equines, I swear I get warmer than anyone else! Sun shining all the time, agh.."
Jorbrook chuckles a little and nods his agreement "We're all hot, Karokin. I've sent an envoy yesterday to them to request they start moving the sun again."
Karokin rolls his eyes "They've left it here this long, and the one I sent two sleeps ago still hasn't returned."
"Really? I sent mine just a few hours ago... I hope he's ok."
As he says that with a suddenly concerned voice, the emperor of the south comes in and takes his seat, sweating lightly like the other two monarchs in the room. Also like the other monarchs, he is wearing only his gold and purple crown, though even this he takes off as he takes his seat at the curved head of the table, sort of. They were all equals, and none really sure why the southern emperor got the head spot on the table, but they went with it as it was tradition to be seated in this arrangement. Neilant, emperor of the southern koman empire, is about the same height as Karokin is, but with considerably less natural strength. He has a feather colour pattern of dark brown with big spots of a calming blue, his wings and face being completely blue. He was a reader, an administrator, an organizer, and somewhat self obsessed. Not terrible at military or speaking with others, but not anywhere near Karokin's abilities in those fields, even though creatures in the area thought of him on the same level as Karokin is militarily. The other two emperors follow his example and take their crowns off, something they would usually do anyways once they had all sat down at the table, though usually this would involve folding their robes as well but the heat would not allow them to wear robes of any sort. As they are setting their crowns down, Neilant clears his throat and says "I don't think the Equestrians wish to talk."
Jorbrook blinks "Uh, what makes you say that?"
"My envoy was disappeared somehow, probably by their magic." He answers with contempt in his voice "I propose we go over there and enforce our desires."
Jorbrook sighs, the thought of war was unpleasant to him. He didn't know much about military tactics and when thinking on the matter of fighting and war he thought mostly of the cost in lives "Surely Equestria is having some sort of problem, yes?"
Neilant snorts unhappily but Karokin speaks before he can "I agree with Neilant, after all it would be quite worth it to get the sun moving and figure out what they did with our envoys."
The council required unanimous agreement from the monarchs to begin offensives as a combined empire, and Jorbrook was hesitant to agree to such a large scale war as them against Equestria "It's.. Let's give them one more day, if they haven't moved the sun by then they aren't going to, and then I agree."
"It's been 70 hours already, they've had plenty of time to move it again and it's clear they aren't going to." Neilant argues "If anything give them ten more hours while we ready our armies."
Jorbrook frowns a little, concerned, but gives a nod as he says after a sigh "Very well.. Ten hours, twenty. Long enough for them either way."
Neilant huffs out a breathe quietly while Karokin clears his throat, then says "I wanted to bring up the village of Damsh, too, Neilant. You know you aren't allowed to tax them, they are a part of my lands."
The two argued about their border village for the next few minutes, with Jorbrook mediating the argument.
In Equestria, about a day after this meeting, Blueblood is taken away from the castle by a very promising offer from a mysterious messenger pegasus. He goes to meet with this vampire leader, Shallow Waters. After nearly an hour of walking, his mane now looking rather scruffy along with most of his coat. He had fallen down small hills multiple times on his way there that the messenger had failed to mention, so that by the time he came to the entrance of the cave, which was guarded by two rather tough looking stallions who presumably were also vampires, his fur and mane were somewhat dirtied and appeared ungroomed, despite the hour he spent that morning making his mane and coat. The vampires didn't seem to mind, or have fur in any better of a shape, as he went into the cave.
The shallow cave is neat, clean and organized to have four sleeping mats near a central table upon which lays a map of equestria with blue, red, black, and green flag markers on it. The black ones are concentrated above the Crystal Empire, likely to represent suspected Sombra forces, the green are all marked in random places in the gryphon lands, but the other two colours are simply scattered across the map seemingly at random. Notably however, the red flags are almost all on towns or Equestrian training grounds, even hidden ones and ones Blueblood knew nothing of are marked. The blue flags are almost all on various geographic locations, with the exception being blue flags directly next to a training ground of the Equestrian Guards. At the table, facing the entrance, sits a white furred unicorn with a very light almost white long mane. Her fur and mane are oddly tidy, groomed almost, without a hint of dirt on her excepting the hooves. As she hears Prince Blueblood's hooves approaching the table, mostly identified from their hesitation, her ears perk up and her horn glows. Blueblood freezes as the grey magic begins, but the unicorn only moves a blue flag from a mountain peak to be next to a red flag that is seemingly in the midst of nowhere, to the prince, but in reality was one of the more secret and elite training grounds for Equestria.
After moving the flag, the unicorn looks up and smiles gently at the prince "I'm glad you accepted my invitation. I am Shallow Waters, I sent that messenger to go get you. Please, take a seat dear prince."
He gives her a polite nod then sits down, beginning to apologize about his appearance before Shallow Waters stops him by raising a hoof "It's no matter deary, I understand the trip on hoof from here to Canterlot very well. I'd frankly be shocked if you weren't like this." She laughs, as if to break tension. Blueblood laughs a little bit with her but stops much more quickly "Ahem, well, yes. I.. was interested in what you had to offer."
She nods "Business, of course. I am sure you know your aunt's policies regarding vampires quite well, yes?"
"Er.. No, actually. We never really spoke about vampires... I had thought they didn't exist."
She rolls her eyes "Well as you can tell, we exist. And her policy is that we aren't allowed to mingle or feed on the normal ponies. My offer is simple to you, me and you take over Equestria with my army of vampires and undead ponies, and any normies that wish to join, and in exchange we install you to the throne, you lift all restrictions on any given pony afflicted with vamparism, wolf changeling syndrome, or any other given mutation she was against."
The prince seems rather surprised by what she says, though once she finishes he quickly composes himself and speaks "Do you not think that Twilight and Cadence would lift these restrictions?"
"No, Twilight was Celestia's student and simply looked up to her too much. Besides, I doubt I could get close enough to ask her to change before the guards arrest or kill me."
He nods a few times before replying thoughtfully "Right.. And Cadence probably sees no reason to change such things. I accept, however I would like to return to Canterlot and have deniability of this. I'll ask Cadence and Twilight to lift those restrictions, whatever they are, while I am there."
Shallow Waters narrows her eyes at Blueblood for a few silent moments before she sighs softly and relaxes "Go ahead. A peaceful resolution would work best." With that, Prince Blueblood rose from his seat and is about to leave but stops when he notices the map again "So, what is this map?"
"Military, the blue flags are my forces and the red are Equestrian. The green are the gryphon empires, I don't quite know what they're doing yet but reports say they're agitated by the sun not moving."
"And the black?"
"Sombra, for completeness's sake. I don't think he will or can do anything, but it is good to have a marker for him just in case."
He nods in understanding, and didn't ask more questions. The mare sounded competent as a commander and he wouldn't want his inexperience in such matters to ruin things. So he leaves and makes his way back to Canterlot
Nopony knew why, and they won't discuss it, but the gloom felt from the passing of their beloved rulers shifts into unease, discomfort, and a general climate of dread across the pony world as these two powerful groups get ready to pounce on the new and only slightly experienced Equestrian Diarchs. Twilight and Cadenza will have a hard road ahead to keep Equestria together
The republicans, the commoners of Equestria, the fourth faction. The normal ponies of Equestria hung in eternal twilight for over four days now whom wanted the mass to determine it's fate. On the first day lay the heavy sadness. On the second day the republicans came forward and spoke, first from the radicals who had wanted elections since before the sisters. The natural argument, of ponies determining their own fate. They found supporters in the dense cities of places such as Manehatten.
On the third day the supporters of the diarchical system came out to debate the republicans. The more easily swayed returned to the latter group's position and soon that most feared of things began when ponies advocate for radical changes; gangs. Violent groups on both sides declaring the other to be the "Destroyers of the Equestrian way of life" or "Enemies to the freedom of the masses", or worse still "The haters of Celestia and Luna, our beloved". These would not clash for some time, and only in cities.
In more rural areas the diarchic system seemed natural and went unchallenged in most small towns such as Ponyville. While the cities, on the fourth day, erupted into fighting between the two groups, who even many of the local guard were a part of. The guard largely favoured the diarch supporting group due in part to duty and in part to their own minds, some did enjoy the republican idea and favoured them instead. While the majority of the guard are attempting only to halt fighting there were a notable number inside of it that wanted to join the radicals of one side or the other.
At the further reaches of Equestria came an even more fringe group: Independents. These independents spoke loudly about the lacking state of the Equestrian military and political structure, that both were too weak to protect the outer reaches of the vast empire. These complaints weren't new either, but as with the republicans had been constrained to a very small group before but now seemed rather valid to their fellow citizens. Unlike the other groups, the independents simply made the guards nervous. Most joined out of a pride in the sisters, or the empire of Equestria, and did not like this growing group of those who wished to shrink and weaken the legacy of the sisters.
As for the assassin? She had her pay, but not from any of these groups. Not from the gryphons, nor the independents, nor republicans, not even from Shallow Waters, that vengeful vampire. No, her pay came from the Cult of Chaos. The Cult of Chaos was an organization that worshiped the unknown, the moving of the unmovable, the destruction of order. The assassin was not a part of this cult but was paid in bits by them, and in the promise of high position in their chaotic non-order which the thought would replace the princesses, in the form of Discord. However, their attempts to move the celestial bodies and to release Discord had both failed. Discord had a much better prison than the last time, and here had been locked away in stone deep in tartarus, behind more safes than even Tirek.
The cult turned militant in these circumstances. They would continue trying to move the moon and sun and in the mean time would attempt to enforce their anarchic, chaotic world order through force.
In short, nopony was a friend to anypony anymore. The posters of the royal sisters hung still and bitter in the twilight, many falling prey to tearing and removal by the radical republican and independent groups.
