//------------------------------//
// Nighttime Massacre 
// Story: The Decline and Fall of West Equestria:  Twilight's Tale 
// by StormLuna 
//------------------------------//

My Argument With Celestia

Despite me being filled with anger that day, night time would arrive soon enough.  Again the protesters had gathered outside the palace, yelling and screaming hoping to keep Celestia and I up.  As we were headed to bed I asked, "Celestia, how much longer are you going to let this keep going before you put your hoof down?  All these sleepless nights can't be good for you."

Celestia replied, "I'm not sure Twilight.  I respect their right to protest, I just don't know how to handle letting them know that they need to keep it limited to the daylight hours."

I suggested, "Celestia, I know you won't like my suggestion but I think that doing what I did earlier today might work.  If it means we can get a good night's sleep, I will do it."

Celestia sighed, "Alright, you can try it.  I don't like the idea of doing that but it's worth a try."

I smiled and headed out to the balcony.  When I got there I was greeted with the usual boos and one pony asked, "Hey Twily, where is Celestia.  Is she too much of a coward to come out and face us?  Is she sitting in her room crying her eyes out?"

The whole crowd began yelling, "Waaah-waaah-waaah."

I had enough of this.  It was time to get these ponies to go home.  I fired a bolt of energy into the sky and yelled, "SILENCE!"  I stood there with my eyes glowing white and that quieted them down.  With my eyes still glowing I continued, "Look, I am sick of this.  Celestia and I need a good night's sleep and maybe if we get that sleep we can make better decisions to get things back to normal sooner."

One pony yelled, "Oooh, what is Tia's little Twily going to do, lecture us some more?"

I fired a bolt of energy at the pony and yelled, "Keep this up and you will find out, and I am certain you will not like it."

This caused the whole crowd to go rushing home.  Yes I know I should not have done that but I was at my wits end.  I was sick of the rioting, the sleepless nights, the assassination attempts and the bucking property destruction.  Even though I did not like him, I was very angry over the brutal murder of Prince Blueblood and I was angry over the deaths of the guards.  I headed back in and I could see a look of anger on Celestia's face.

Celestia asked, "Twilight, what the hay was all that about?  You KNOW that is not how we are supposed to treat our subjects."

I sighed, "Look, I just lost my cool ok.  I'm sick of everything they are doing, keeping us up all night, killing guards, destroying property, the death of Blueblood and them trying to kill us."  I stomped my hoof into the floor and continued, "I'm tired, I'm frustrated and I think that these ponies need to be shown some tough love.  If we keep coddling them, these activities will continue to happen.  If you want this chaos and having to live in fear for your life, fine but I don't want to have to do that and I certainly don't want to see you get hurt or killed."

Celestia replied, "Twilight, the royalty here has never been like this.  We have always been been benevolent, loving....."

I interrupted, "Well they sure the hay weren't benevolent or loving when they charged into your bedroom now were they?"  I headed into Luna's room and growled, "Good night!"





Death and Destruction

I headed into Luna's old sleeping chambers hoping to get a good night's rest but I just couldn't get to sleep.  The anger flowing within me had me pacing back and forth.  If I were sleeping in my old room I probably would have had holes kicked in the wall but I had to contain my anger, I did not feel like waking Celestia and having another argument.  I simply don't understand how she can just sit there and put up with this.  Why does she seem to think that continuing to be nice will work?  It isn't working and while there haven't been any riots in a while, I'm sure there will be again soon once everypony decides they want to destroy other properties, such as the castle or other ponies' homes.

Before I laid down I decided to open the window a bit, hoping that some fresh air would calm me down, which it surprisingly did.  All I could hear coming from outside were a couple owls hooting and the crickets.  I said to myself, "Ah, now this is more like it!  This is how Canterlot is supposed to be at night, nice and quiet!"

I finally got to sleep but a couple hours later I was awoken by the smell of smoke.  At first I thought the castle might be on fire until I heard explosions.  I headed to my window and looked off towards the wealthy side of town and was horrified.  I saw several more explosions, buildings were burning and I could hear ponies screaming in terror.   My first thought was, "Mom and Dad!  They live over there."  While they were visiting Shining Armor and Cadence in the Crystal Empire, I knew that I better go make sure their house is ok so without hesitation I took off out my window and headed to the wealthy end of town.  

When I arrived it was pure chaos, more and more houses were being set on fire, wealthy ponies were being rammed with spears and the houses that hadn't yet been set on fire were being emptied out.   I flew over to where my parents' house was and it was one of the few that had yet to be touched.  I stood there guarding it but that was not going to stop the mobs.  As they approached me they were screaming "TYRANT" and yelling for me to move if I didn't want to die so I did the first thing I could think of, I fired a powerful bolt of energy at them.  That would not stop them though as they had surrounded me and as I took the ones in front of me out, the ones on the side fired spears into my hind legs.  I fell to the ground screaming in pain and despite me crying in agony, they trampled over me and set my parents' house ablaze.

I knew it was lost so I pulled the spears out and headed back to the castle.  Once I got back into Luna's old room I cleaned my wounds and got them stitched up.  I limped into Celestia's room and woke her up.  She turned on the light and saw the injuries to my hind legs and asked, "Twilight, what happened to you?"

I led her over to the window and pointed off towards the fires.  I said, "Celestia, a huge mob has attacked the wealthy side of town.  I went over there to make sure nothing had happened to my parents' house but I got shot with spears."

Celestia hung her head low and sighed, "I know the ponies are frustrated over the way things are going and I know what the elite said to the working class today was very derogatory but I never imagined it would come to this."

I asked, "What do we do?"

Celestia replied, "I don't know if there is much we can do.  It is far too dangerous for us to go over there right now and I'm not sure if we even have any guard ponies left."

I said, "I'll go check the castle to see if any of the ones that didn't already abandon us are left."

I headed into the main part of the castle and searched it from top to bottom but there was not a single guard pony.  I said to myself, "Great, just great.  We don't have any royal guard left."  I headed back up to Celestia's room and said, "Celestia, they're all gone.  We have no royal guard left."

Celestia wiped a tear from her eye and said, "Well Twilight, perhaps the time has come."

I asked, "Time for what?"

Celestia replied, "The time for me to go.  The time for me to go take over in Saddle Arabia and put an end to their war and the time for you to be the sole ruler of West Equestria."  

I began to cry, "You don't really mean that do you?"

Celestia replied, "Yes Twilight, I do.  I am no longer wanted here and with as dissatisfied as they are with their monarchs, I'm quite sure the Saddle Arabians will welcome me with open hooves."

I cried, "But what do I do now?  I don't know if I'm prepared to be a sole monarch."

Celestia replied, "Well I would start by moving the capitol to Ponyville.  Second, I think you should just trust your own judgment when it comes to dealing out with criminals.  Tomorrow morning, if anypony is left alive, I will address them and tell them that I am leaving.  Once I do that, I will fly to Vanhoover, take a ship to Saddle Arabia and West Equestria will be yours."

I saw by the look in her eyes that she was not kidding, that she was serious.  I limped to her and hugged her crying, "I really wish you would reconsider this.  You have been like a second mother to me.  You were a larger part of my life growing up than my parents were.  Please don't go."

Celestia hung her head low and replied, "Twilight, I will miss you as much as you miss me but like I said before, I am no longer wanted here, the ponies here hate both of us and I do not want to rule over a nation where I am despised."

I knew that there was no changing her mind so we just stayed up the rest of the night cherishing the final hours that we would get to spend together.  This day would likely be the hardest day in my life but I know that once I return to Ponyville, my friends will help me through this.