A couple of centuries have passed since the day that Twilight and her friends were anointed the new rulers of Equestria by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. The Friendship Council lasted a while after the deaths of her friends but as the saying goes, “Nothing lasts forever.” She’s made new friends of course, but Spike is the only one left of those that remember any of the events that are written in the Friendship Journal or Twilight’s Book of Memories. And during a visit to the Shrine of Harmony she gets a vision of the future. A future where history repeats itself. A future without magic because it’s a future without friendship. A future where each race of pony have split once again back into three separate tribes. Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi all keep to themselves once more and neither trust the other. Because the future will change, so too she has to change. She has to change in order for history to repeat and the magic of friendship to be found once again in another era of Equestria’s darkest hour. A change that she never thought she would have to make. Instead of spreading friendship, she must hide it. Hide it and bury it, so that one day it can be found once again. Because if she doesn’t, the magic of friendship could be gone forever.
Author’s Note: This story was written for the My Little Pony Renaissance Contest. The theme for the contest can be found here: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/950768/the-my-little-pony-renaissance-contest
It’s about rebirth and change. So, my idea behind this short one off story is what change would Twilight have to make in order for the magic of friendship to be found by the characters is the next My Little Pony movie that will be shown on Netflix?
This is so sad about what's becoming of the future of Equestria leading up to G5.
But, I will say this, when those two ponies from the upcoming G5 movie see what's become of Twilight Sparkle and the old Equestria, they'll want to finish what she and her friends have started.
On an related note, whoever's going to be the voice actors and crew (because two of the new characters were made by a pegistster of G4 mind you) of the new G5 movie and tv show on Netflix pretty much have some big shoes to fill after the success of G4, and we should all wish them luck on the new movie and show!
It's always darkest just before the dawn...
I sincerely hope that for G5 they adapt a storyline of this type for the backstory behind everything that has changed. The concept, tragic it may be, could be an incredible way to connect the two generations together and maintain at least some aspects of the past. A complete overhaul would seem too drastic, but in this way the big changes that are being implemented could make sense.
As someone who grew up with the Mane Six and G4, and who will still be around when the first episode of G5 airs, I really hope something like this will be an essential part of the story. A path of rediscovery.
It also make me wonder, where is Twilight, Celestia and Luna... and if maybe she is waiting there for Sunny
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I thought about that yes. However, I really couldn't see Twilight retreating into her study and turning herself to stone to wait for Sunny while a war rages on above her. She'll want to protect her friends and try to preserve what friendship there still would be between the three tribes. It's the way she's been throughout the series. For example The last two-part episode "The Ending of the End" we saw how easily the three tribes could be separated. While all that was going on, she was still working on defeating the villains. So, in my story idea and in the situation in my story, I couldn't see Twilight retreating into the room to wait for Sunny. I think she'd be out there trying her best to the bitter end to preserve unity between the three tribes.
As far as Celestia and Luna, I'd say they would age and pass away fairly quickly. And this is my reasoning. We know that it's cannon that Celestia and Luna were just normal ponies and had to earn their Princess wings. This means, at least in my mind, that they would have a normal lifespan if they didn't become princesses. More than likely their lifespans were increased because they became princesses due to some type of power transfer. I say this because we saw the physical change in Twilight during the Last Problem episode where she changed to look like Celestia and Luna. If a ponies lifespan is changed due to some magical anointing after becoming princess then that would mean that after Celestia and Luna anointed Twilight as the new ruler then what elongated their lifespan would now be gone. And Celestia and Luna would return to a normal lifespan, hence why they retired to the retirement community where they would be taken care of during their final days.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on it and why I didn't write in Twilight into the secret room and had her just leaving a note because she was killed during the war by either a sniper or an assassin. So, what do y'all think?
This is why Twilight ruling alone is a BIG MISTAKE.
Whenever I think about how the magic of friendship will be lost to Equestria between G4 and G5 I'm reminded of a particular exchange from WandaVision:
Vision: We've said goodbye before. So it stands to reason...
Wanda: We'll say hello again.
Similarly, the Ponies of Equestria have rejected friendship before. So it follows that they'll accept friendship again.
I'm guessing that, in this continuity, Discord has retreated to his own dimension by now. I can only hope that Sunny and her friends can befriend him like Fluttershy and her friends did.
That said, I can't see Discord completely cutting himself off from Twilight and Spike, he values them as friends too.
Is there a statue of Twilight Sparkle herself in the Shrine of Friendship?
What happened to the tree house that the Young Six built?
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Are you sure we KNOW Celestia and Luna had to earn their wings? We are never told that Celestia and Luna weren't born as Alicorns. The whole "the birth of an Alicorn is something Equestria has never seen" could be true "from a certain point of view" because in the backstory of the "The Journal of the Two Sisters" the founders and Starswirl found the sisters and decided that even thought they were blank flanks as Alicorns and representatives of 3 the tribes they'd make sense as rulers. Even if you don't consider the book canon, that line and the whole thing of an Alicorn baby smells of executive meddling to sell more toys. And if you are born BEFORE Equestria, Equestria has never seen your birth.
One more thing to consider of Celestia and Luna being ageless is the depiction of the raising of the sun and moon. In the journal it is stated that moving the sun and the moon permanently drains an unicorn, but for some reason when the sisters do it, after Starswirl tries to do it alone because all others are drained he is left drained and aged prematurely, they finally gain their cutie marks and instead of draining themselves they seem to strengthen and even use this new power to restore the drained unicorns. I guess you could also take the middle road and make that the point of their ascension, that they were his students/adoptive daughters/other and forcing themselves to do it alone gave them their wings, but the big part is that they gain power from the sun and the moon either because all Alicorns would or because and Alicorn gains strength when expressing their talent.
If it was because talents, and they gave that duty to raise the sun and the moon to Twilight, they stopped gaining strength daily, and if it is related to your talent and not your status as an Alicorn Twilight would gain strength for doing a great feat of magic but also drained for doing it without it being your talent. Actually it could be the reason they are no longer around, because she wasn't meant to move the celestial bodies Twilight, Celestia and Luna grew old because they weren't making use of their talents. Luna and Celestia are disconnected from the sun and the moon and the sole ruler of Equestria Twilight didn't have the time to use serious amounts of magic or making friends. Add some time and Equestria goes down the toilet when there is no immortal on the throne representing the 3 tribes... Good job fixing it Celestia
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Twilight is shocked when Flurry Heart has wings and turned to her mentor for answers.
Twilight: "The baby is an Alicorn?"
Cadence: "It looks that way."
Rarity: "B-B-But I thought Alicorn wings had to be earned by accomplishing some great princess worthy deed."
Applejack: "Yeah, how can she just be born with them?"
Celestia: "The birth of an Alicorn is something that Equestria has never seen."
Luna: "It is beyond even our understanding."
This whole scene in context hints toward the idea that Celestia, Luna, and Cadence all had to earn their wings and Flurry Heart was the first one that was born an Alicorn.
Thank you for your opinion and have a good day.
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and completely failed to address his argument at all.
That was surprisingly dismissive...
That people are already doing with Gen 5 what was done with Gen 4 gives me hope.
We created something epic, bronies. We can do it again.
This story was absolutely phenomenal. I would love to see a continuation of Sunny finding Twilight’s letter for her
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Thank you very much. This story was hastily written just for the contest, so I hadn't thought about any continuation of it. However, after just watching the movie, I'll put up a blog post about if anypony else would like to see a continuation of it. If I do then it wouldn't follow the movie. However, it would utilize the characters, personalities, and locations of the movie but be based on a previous war (as was the idea of this short story). When I read about the contest and that it was about change because of the new movie, I wrote this one rather quickly over a few hours. It was my idea of behind what could have happened, so I could have done better but I wanted to get the story written and posted before anypony else had the same idea and wrote one before I could.
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Interesting parallels.