The sun's warm rays slowly crept over the dark horizon shedding a soft light on the new day. The grass outside began to shine brilliantly as the dew stuck tight to each blade. An hour before the sun's light blessed the morning there had been a light drizzle. It's moisture still hung heavily in the cool day but was pierced by the light splitting it into a arrangement of colors.
The pegasi had really been busy over the night getting just the right amount of rain for this important morning, the first day for the new royalty to take the thrones. Yet even with the soft light slowly pressing into Twilight's room she couldn't shake the feeling of unease her dream had given her. But as always her logical side shone through and quickly thought to ask Celestia, but she soon dismissed this idea in favor of asking Luna. After all, princess Luna was the resident expert on the night and dreams, but she had to ask soon since the night was setting and the sun was raising.
With a burst of will the Purple maned Alicorn slowly rose from her bed, she stretched her wings uncomfortably and reminded herself to ask Rainbow Dash how to properly sleep with wings. After a few minutes of magically fixing her mane she figured she was presentable. She turned her attention temporarily to a bird chirping outside her window, but when she looked outside it turned out the bird in question was all the way across the courtyard and she heard it perfectly. The element of magic quickly dismissed it as just an Alicorn thing before she walked towards the door.
Her horn glowed slightly as did the door before the door was swung open with impossible speed only to smash loudly on the stone wall. "Oops... right, control your power," she said to herself as the purple alicorn applied the techniques she had learned yesterday to lower her power available directly. She tested the new barriers by picking up the brush on her bedside and putting it back down. After a loud and drawn out sigh Twilight began walking towards Luna's chambers.
=======
Twilight's hoof came up to the large double wooden doors and knocked three times. Her attention was quickly drawn to the elegant design covering the doors, a large full moon dominated the center. Off to the sides of the moon were every phase of the moon and even an almost accurate representation of the stars but some of them looked misaligned. "Strange I thought they would have tried a bit harder to get it accurate," Twilight commented to herself before understanding clicked in her mind. The stars were accurate, as of thousands of years ago, this small revelation truly put their age in perspective and only made it more impressive.
After a moment more of admiring the doors supreme craftsmanship Twilight knocked again, much louder this time. "Prin... I mean Luna, I'm coming in," the purple alicorn said as her horn glowed again making the doors swing inwards silently. "Luna, I need to talk to you," the alicorn of magic said before stopping dead in her tracks. The room she was facing was magnificent, the walls were covered with every star visible in the night sky that seemed to be moving ever so slowly, something only her keen new eyes could have noticed. They were accurate down to the latest second, and the bed in the room was magnificent. It's black elegant frame seemed to be carved out of some ancient tree with techniques long since forgotten. But for some reason the bed was completely undisturbed, "Luna?" Twilight called out more loudly.
Slowly she put one hoof in front of the other as she explored the marvelous room that surrounded her. A quick investigation of the bed showed it hadn't been used recently. The absolutely humongous closet turned up no clue's as to the goddess of the nights whereabouts either. "Luna, please come out," Twilight said a marginal tint of terror creeping into her voice. Her hooves were less controlled now as her pace quickened around the room. She finally managed to spot a faint outline through the blinds where the Balcony was. She walked carefully to the blinds and pulled them back to find Luna standing there. "Ah there you are Luna," Twilight said, "I had a dream I would like to discuss with you."
"We are sorry Twilight Sparkle, but we do not have much time to talk, let alone about dreams or nightmares. We shall soon have to part," Luna said in a voice that sounded completely distant.
"What are you talking about Luna?" the younger alicorn asked, her head tilting slightly towards the black alicorn.
"Recall the legend for they shall tell you what you need to know, we wish you the best and ask you to continue on the legacy, better then we or our sister did." Luna's head remained locked in place as her eyes scanned the horizon aimlessly.
Twilight stood still for a few moments before her eyes opened slightly wider. "No, you can't leave... You haven't said goodbye to everypony else!" Her voice cracked and her mind rushed as she tried to think of a reason for Luna to stay.
"Trust us Twilight Sparkle, we have said our goodbye's in their dreams, you are the last one. We ask again, will you be brave and as wise as this post requires you to be?" Luna's tone had turned monotone, no normal pony could hear any emotions in her words but Twilight heard it. The tiniest hint of sadness threatening to engulf Luna.
"I will, I swear," Twilight's throat closed up temporarily and she had trouble even saying that much.
"Thank you, now we shall take our leave, it is not our choice but know this. We will always be with you in one form or another. Good bye Twilight Sparkle, Queen Alicorn of Magic." Her eyes stayed locked on the horizon and in the next second she was gone in a bright flash of light.
Twilight Sparkle simply stood there dumbfounded, the goddess of the night had just disappeared. Twilight's mind began to reel at the impossibility of simply disappearing. Quickly Twilight removed the blocks she had put around her magic only minutes ago and sent out a kind of probe into the world scanning for the familiar powers of Luna. But even after scanning the whole of Equestria, there was absolutely no results, but according to her quick search for magic power Celestia was still in the castle.
All sense of regalty in her hoofsteps had been abandoned as the new alicorn ran straight down the hall towards the looming doors of the throne room. Not bothering to stop for even a second Twilight blasted in each door of her friends as loudly as she could screaming like a banshee as she passed. Yelling at them all to meet her in the throne room immediately as she slammed open the large doors. There standing in the middle of the room with the same locked gaze as Luna had, was Celestia.
"Princess! What happened to Luna, where did she go, are you going to leave?" Twilight's torrent of questions seemed to be completely ineffective at knocking Celestia out of her stupor. Twilight's questions kept coming as the rest of the newest Queens of Equestria filed in quickly, taking places beside Twilight.
"Sugarcube, calm down, we all want answers an' we're going to get em," Applejack said, her voice was almost as frantic as Twilight's but she obviously was less emotional. Her control seemed absolute but behind the facade of confidence, a hint of fear and even anger could be heard. Her light green eyes scanned Celestia for any and all signs of movement but there was none except for the gentle rise and fall of breathing.
"My little ponies," Celestia said with deliberate slowness, "I cannot answer where Luna went, for I have no idea." Celestia stopped for a few moments in order to let this sink in before continuing. "What is happening is simple, the new alicorns of harmony have been chosen and know everything they need to know, so there is no need for the old. Why is the hardest to answer, for I have even less of a clue why, then I do about Luna's current whereabouts. Just know this my ponies, you are the new queens, and you will need to find out who will raise the sun, and who will raise the night. Since me and Luna were the only ones we split the duty, however this turned out not to be an intelligent choice as you all saw with Nightmare Moon. If you raise the night more often then not, you will find yourself becoming more attuned to the night, and the same with raising the sun to the day. Now I bid you good luck and goodbye, thank you my little ponies, and Twilight, my faithful student. I could not be more proud of your accomplishments, that goes for each and every single one of you, Thank you." Celestia's speech concluded she kept facing towards the entrance to the throne room before a bright light seemed to come from nowhere and she was gone.
A silence ensued that made a single bit drop sound like a church bell, no one moved or even breathed; this continued ,for what they perceived, to be eternity. For once, there was no real direction they were being pushed in, or expected to do. It felt like a set of chains had been lifted, yet at the same time new chains laid on.
A single quiet hoofstep sounded almost like a gun going off in the silence. This tiny sound knocked the new alicorns out of their stupor as they all turned the newcomer, a pegasus stallion with a black coat, dark blue mane and yellow eyes. He bowed and waited there until Twilight realized he was waiting for some kind of sign, "there's no need for that." Twilight quickly said allowing the pony to recover onto his feet.
"Salutations my queens, I used to serve princess Luna and am here to help you run your new kingdom at first, at least until you get the hang of it. Specifically I specialized in internal affairs and economics. Please call me when you have need, you may refer to me as Dol." The new pegasus pony said before another sound came from the entrance. A second pony entered the magnificent throne room and began to bow.
Yet again twilight acknowledged the unicorn and allowed her to stand. "Salutations my queens, I was previously in the service of princess Celestia and will help you with the nature oriented part of the job. I mainly specialize in the more magical aspects of your new kingdom and am here for you to consult on any matters you deem worthy. Please call me Seff, it is a pleasure to meet all of you." With the introduction out of the way the two new ponies stood side by side waiting for instructions. Seff had yellow hair and a white mane with orange eyes, Both of the new ponies flanks were covered with modest garments that showed their positions. The fabric seemed soft enough and the stiching must have been done by an expert to get the intricacies just right.
Finally Rainbow Dash spoke up, "so what exactly are we supposed to do now? They didn't really tell us." Her eyebrows lowered slightly and her nose wrinkled. She felt a soft hoof on her shoulder, it was Fluttershy.
"Please calm down," Fluttershy said into Dash's ear, almost immediately her soothing words made the rainbow maned alicorn relax slightly. Her eyes however continued to study the two new pony's.
"Well, I suggest that you choose who shall raise and lower the sun, along with who will raise and lower the night. We shall leave you to it and shall be outside of the chamber where you may find us when you are done conversing." Seff the unicorn said as she and Dol quickly turned around and walked out of the throne room. The doors shutting lightly behind them left another awkward silence before Twilight began.
"Personally I think we should split it up between the six of us, so three of us would raise the sun, and three of us would raise the night. What do you gals think?" Twilight asked curiously looking at each of the powerful alicorns around her. Nopony seemed to want to talk so instead everypony nodded in agreement. "Personally I think I would be more suited for sun duty due to having studied under Celestia for years I would find it only natural." Twilight continued.
Fluttershy, to the surprise of everypony, was the next to talk. "I'd like to help raise the sun, I mean if that's ok, after all animals love the sun so much." Her eyes were focused on the flawless floor, tracing a small pattern in the tiles. Nopony seemed to have any objections to it so she stayed silent and smiled slightly.
"I'd reckon raising the sun is where I fit in. Since farmin' takes so much sunlight an' warmth," Applejack explained before asking, "Unless somepony else wants to help raise the sun of course?" The question hung there heavily but no response came so they moved on.
"Well I guess that leaves me, Rarity, and Pinkie to the night eh?" Rainbow Dash asked excitedly at the concept. Her eyes alive with a inner kind of fire that hadn't burned in her eyes since she first earned her cutie mark. The fire of a challenge that she knew would be difficult but she would conquer. "After all, it's even more difficult flying during the night and in the dark, plus having dream powers sounds pretty cool."
"Rarity? do you mind doing the night?" the purple maned alicorn asked, her voice soft as if hesitating to give her a choice almost.
"Not at all darling, it shall give me plenty of time to work on my dresses and think of brand new designs in private." Rarity responded enthusiastically, designs already buzzing around her head that she never had the time to even attempt to make before. Designs so complicated they would make any other pony's head spin in a full circle.
Twilight barely had time to get the first syllable in Pinkie's name out of her mouth before Pinkie Pie interrupted her. "Of course I don't mind, party's are so much more fun in the dark anyways!"
Twilight nodded slightly and said finally, "then it's agreed, me, Fluttershy, and Applejack will raise and lower the sun. While Pinkie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash will raise and lower the night, deal?" Twilight asked to make sure there had been no misunderstandings.
"Agreed," the group of assembled queens said in unison, each of them had their own looks. Ranging from pure excitement to pure terror of the upcoming unknown.
Pinkie finally spoke up again, "I think we all need a hug, because hugs are nice." Everypony nodded absentmindedly but nopony seemed to want to move.
"How bout' later sugarcube?" Applejack suggested to the element of laughter. Everyone else quickly nodded in agreement as they walked towards the throne's.
Twilight thought to herself, 'this won't be so hard, we're already organized and our friendship is stronger then ever, we can do this.'