//------------------------------//
// The Shattered Metropolis 
// Story: Counterclockwise 
// by AdrianJNovelle 
//------------------------------//

	"I knew you'd be back," Princess Cadence said, approaching the lone pony. "I guess I overestimated you, Twilight: I thought you'd return the very next day."
"I probably would've," Twilight replied, staring miserably at the tombstone in front of her, casting a shadow over the hollow words. "But my friends kept me away."
"Didn't you write me saying they all left?"
Twilight nodded slowly. "I did...I just..."
She paused for a long moment.
"Yes?" Princess Cadence asked, taking a seat next to her in the dirt. As unladylike as it was, she yearned to comfort her emotionally distressed sister-in-law.
"I can't believe all that time we spent together...everything we did...it's all for nothing...I'm alone."
"You're not alone," Princess Cadence denied. "You have me, your brother, your parents - I'm sure they'll be happy to see you - and not to mention Spike and the other ponies who live in Ponyville who you seldom talk to."
"But none of those ponies are my best friends who taught me the magic of friendship," Twilight remarked. "It's just not the same!"
Princess Cadence put her hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "I understand," she said. "But you know what this means?" Twilight shook her head in response. "It means you, Twilight Sparkle, are free to do what you please, without having your friends to burden your palette with all of their problems. I can understand you missing their company - I truly feel for you - but you mustn't beat yourself up over the matter, my dear Twilight. You can either choose to stay here and cry over the loss Princess Celestia and the absence of your friends. Or you can choose to make the most of their departures, and pursue your passions in their leave. I can't make you decide: only you can make you decide what to do."
Twilight pondered that decision. She did have a growing curiosity for studying higher and higher levels of magic. She was becoming quite the fluent magician, and wondered what else could be done with her horn that she had not already accomplished. She could teleport, levitate objects, spawn doors, even make a circus out of Fluttershy's animal friends. And there was also that time-travel spell she used that one time when her future self came to visit briefly to heed a warning about not to panic about a disaster which never came. Time-travel was hardly touched upon in magic. Only Star Swirl the Bearded himself created time-travel spells, and even then, he was meticulous about what he did with them. He probably never even used them, but simply created them for the joy of expanding his magical palette. To him, it would be like Big Macintosh adding five pounds to a weight to bench: mere child's play.
It wasn't child's play to Twilight. No. It would be an expansion of her intellect and magical abilities. She would become a pioneer into a grand frontier no one has hardly set a hoof into. She would become famous, and quite possibly rich...no...she refused to. That's what happened to all of her friends, those disloyal, backstabbing bastards. If she were to pursue this enterprise, she would do it for knowledge's sakes: because she is a scholar who loves to read, learn, and perform magical spells which prove to everyone why the mark on her butt looks the way it does: a sparkle. A sparkle on a twilight-colored pony. 
As she pondered deeper into her thoughts, she began to wonder: was that her whole point of being born a unicorn, having a name like Twilight Sparkle, and having a cutie mark which told anyone who looked her way that her special talent was being the most magical unicorn in Ponyville and quite possibly Equestria? Or was that just the first step up the staircase she would bear to climb to find her true potential as a unicorn? Think about it. Star Swirl the Bearded was a legendary unicorn, and when he came up with all those spells, underminded ponies figured that was the most anypony could do with magic. That or the Elements of Harmony or the magic of friendship itself. In truth, there is no limit. Twilight can keep learning and inventing and discovering till the day she died. She could use the tools Star Swirl the Bearded set out for her to become the most innovative and powerful unicorn ever to exist: crossing between the regions of Equestria, through space, and through the fabric of time and life itself.
It was only a theory.





Twilight's life changed that day. She started studying magic full-time, only taking occasional breaks to visit her family - her whole family - in Canterlot, and emote over dear Princess Celestia. Once in a blue moon, she wrote to one of her friends, hoping for a reply, but it seemed no one was in one place long enough to promptly respond. Heartbroken as she was, she continued on, and studied harder and harder until she was able to master the brief temporal teleportation spell Star Swirl the Bearded invented. Upon her mastery, she also bickered that that spell should really be renamed to something more...memorable. 
The mastery of that spell took her a full year to complete. It was then things started to take a turn for the worst, almost as if the smarter Twilight got, the more tragic and depressing her life became outside of her education.
Princess Cadence called her in to a Canterlot visit via Spike. She reported to her sister-in-law as fast she could, taking the usual Friendship Express route, not yet capable of teleporting herself from the Library to Canterlot Castle. Princess Cadence was waiting for her in front of Princess Celestia's grave when she got there.
"What's going on?" Twilight inquired, running up to the Princess.
"I want you to see something," Princess Cadence replied. She gestured with her hoof. "Follow me."
The two mares walked up Canterlot Castle, and through the massive hallways to Canterlot Tower, where Princess Cadence cracked open a window ajar, and used her magic to create a ladder by partially removing the white bricks from the surface of the tower. They proceeded up the artificial staircase, to the top of Canterlot Tower, where one could see nearly all of Canterlot. The only greater height in town was the top of the mountain Canterlot was built against. 
"I don't understand...what am I supposed to be seeing?"
Instead of replying, Princess Cadence simply pointed far out to Ponyville, where a small number of ponies - perhaps a family - were packing their bags, as if they were starting their move away.
"I still don't get it," Twilight said.
"Don't you see?" Princess Cadence asked. "They're moving." 
"Hardly, but yeah, I can see that. I don't know what's so significant about their move."
"They're moving not because the father got a new job or they found a better house or something; something reasonable. They are moving, Twilight, because they do not trust me as the Princess of Equestria. They liked me just fine as a plain heir to the Throne, under the impression that Princess Celestia was immortal and so would never die, and no one would inherit the Throne, not even Luna. Her disappearance only worsens things. I haven't heard from her since her departure. She could be anywhere by now."
"C'mon, Cadence: you're being hypercritical," Twilight retorted.
"Am I?" Princess Cadence pointed to Appleloosa. Twilight squinted, and saw more ponies starting their leave from the city as well. She continued her surveillance, seeing the origins of a change of location from all corners of Equestria that could be seen from where she was standing: Cloudsdale, Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Las Pegasus, even down below in the Kingdom of Canterlot itself, there were ponies making an egress. "The world we know is ebbing away," Princess Cadence continued, interrupting the silence. "My subjects live in fear for what has happened to Princess Celestia and especially Princess Luna. They live in fear of what might happen if I remain in power. They do not wish to antagonize anyone or cause any harm to anypony or themselves, so instead, they swallow their fears, pretend that nothing is amiss, and gracefully move away - just like that."
"What...what do we do?" Twilight asked.
Princess Cadence's frown grew bigger as she lowered her head. "I don't know..."
Twilight put her hoof on her sister-in-law's shoulder. 
"Get used to this," she continued. "I fear the worst of our demise: ponies will continue evacuating until we are nearly all alone. All we can do is pray that more stay than go, and that Equestria will continue to prosper as a nation."
"Where would they go?" 
"Someplace else," Princess Cadence snidely remarked. "There are other places in the world than Equestria. Equestria is just a country which stretches from Canterlot to Ponyville to The Crystal Empire. You've never left its borders, and I pray you never have to. If everyone leaves Equestria, there will soon be no Equestria: just a bunch of broken hearts and dreams and faded memories of what was...before...I took power."
Twilight took another good look around Equestria. Although she was not sure that Princess Cadence's interpretations were correct, there was nothing which contradicted her claim, and she has noticed that the morality and livelihood of everypony had decreased since her reign began. Princess Cadence was loved by everypony. Why wouldn't she be? She's adorable! But, it occurred to Twilight that she may have been loved simply as an heir. Due to Princess Luna's immediate resignation, Princess Cadence's inaguration took place not long after everyone got comfortable with Princess Luna being in power. Even still, they were still heartbroken over losing their first Princess, and everyone was used to Luna's position as Celestia's adjunct. Now she was a nomad. Princess Cadence is in power, and although Equestria could hardly be in better hooves based on the circumstances, a blanket of fear covered the country from coast to coast.
"I'm sorry, Princess," Twilight mumbled.
"It's not your fault, Twilight," Princess Cadence replied. "It's no one's fault but my own, for accepting my position as Princess of Equestria. Celestia's not to blame for dying. And if I could do anything to prevent her suffering, I would."
Prevention?
"Does it have to be this way, Cadence? Is this the fate of Equestria: faith that we will not crumble as a nation?"
The Princess nodded. "It is so," she said. "I'm afraid there is nothing we can do."
Fate. Prevention. These words caught onto Twilight. 
The next twenty-four years only strengthed her position in what she intended to do. As the highest-level unicorn imaginable, she would use temporal manipulation spells to travel through time, and find herself in the future. She felt like she did not belong here anymore: between Equestria crumbling to pieces and her friends ditching her. It seemed that the only ways for Twilight to find happiness again were either fall in love, or perhaps find what she was truly meant to be. Just, in the future. The present offers nothing but disaster.
"I can't stay here, Cadence. I've lost nearly everything that's important to me." Twilight gazed up at the stars overhead. "Any life but this one would be heaven."
"Are you sure about this?"
"Positive."
"But what about Equestria?"
"I'm not an heir."
"Maybe not. But you still care about it."
"You are right...but...I don't think I can live like this anymore."
"Do what you wish...I only want what is best for you."
"Thank you, Princess."
"Just promise me one thing."
"Anything."
"Promise you'll come back if you don't find what you need."
"Of course...I promise."
With that, Twilight gave Princess Cadence one last hug goodbye, closed her eyes, concentrated, and disappeared in a flash of light.