The soft echo of Twilight’s hooves reverberated through the empty halls of Canterlot Castle. Down the Hall of Heroes—the stained glass monument to the Elements of Harmony’s various victories—past the Grand Galloping Gala Ballroom—where the yearly gathering of Equestria’s most renowned citizens was held—and through the Sewers of Shame—Canterlot’s less well-known district for disreputable undesirables—that mellifluous sound of hoofsteps echoed, breaking the silence that hung like a warm summer’s air over the castle.

With each step, Twilight felt the silence surrounding her grow more and more profound. With each hoof-fall, that somber ambiance grew deeper and deeper. It was if someone had placed a great cloud over Canterlot while it was sleeping it and smothered it. Not a single voice was to be heard. No guards, no chefs, no maids, no librarians, no janitors, no princesses, no friends, and especially no dental hygienists. Even that ubiquitous blujay, the one who had followed her around for months, singing constantly, was silent. Not just silent, in fact, gone. Every single living thing in the entirety of Equestria, from the tiniest amoeba, to the largest dragon… was gone.

And Twilight couldn’t have been more pleased.

After ascending to princesshood, Twilight began to find that she could stand her ‘subjects’ less and less. She used to marvel at how Celestia and Luna had managed to maintain their sanity for the past millennia, but then an idea struck her. It was a mad, brilliant, and altogether ludicrous scheme, but she felt compelled to test it out, if only for the sake of her own peace and quiet.

One morning, when she was greeted by the royal checklist bearer, Twilight decided to do the unthinkable. In the middle of the 43rd item (replace all 2-ply toilet paper with standard 4-ply), she did what only one pony had done before, she banished him to the Moon.

With a pop, and a slight crackle, the innocent, yet extremely annoying, stallion disappeared into thin air, leaving behind only his glasses, cap, and that austere checklist. Almost not believing that it had worked, she waited for him to reappear, new checklist in hoof and a scowl on his face. But after several minutes of pure, blissful silence, she realized that he was gone for good, and that was the end of it. At least, that’s what she thought.

About a month after her first banishment, Twilight was going about her princessly duties as per usual. Things seemed to be going pretty well. She had not mentioned to anyone, not even her friends, the banishment of the checklist bearer, and no one had said a word about his sudden disappearance. Halfway through one morning, however, Celestia approached Twilight.

“Twilight,” she said, opening the door to Twilight’s study and casually strolling in, her face betraying her calm demeanor. “Do you have a moment?”

Twilight glanced up from the requisition forms she had been looking over, pushing her glasses to the bridge of her nose. “Oh, Princess! Yes, of course. What is it?”

Celestia smiled that calm, welcoming smile of hers, though her eyes were still hard. “You’re a princess now, too, remember?”

With a sigh and a glance down at the piles of paperwork cluttering her desk, Twilight replied, “I’m reminded of that fact every day.”

“Mm,” Celestia hummed. “Yes, bureaucracy does have it’s downsides, does it not? Anyway, I didn’t come here to talk with you about our legal system.” She paused, her brow furrowing. “Actually, I suppose I did, come to think of it.” She gave her head a little shake. “That’s not the point. The point is that I’ve been hearing some troubling rumors as of late.”

Twilight frowned, slipping her glasses off and setting them aside. “What do you mean?”

Celestia’s auroral mane flowed like a river, gently undulating as she stood in silence. After a time, she said, “It’s come to my attention that you may have… enacted a certain punishment upon a citizen of Equestria without proper legal authority.”

Twilight’s heart caught in her throat. “I… I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

Celestia sighed. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Come to what?”

“I didn’t believe the rumors at first either. I thought, ‘Twilight could never do that!’. But I knew I had to check myself, just to be sure.”

“You… checked?”

Celestia nodded gravely. “That’s right, Twilight. I went to see for myself if what I had heard was true. I went to the Moon, and do you know what I saw?”

Twilight said nothing.

“I saw him. Daily Routine was his name, did you know that?”

“I—”

“He told me he had been trapped on the Moon for the past month, that you were the one who had banished him. He said he didn’t know what he did to deserve such a punishment.” Celestia’s lips pursed. “Twilight, do you know why I banished Luna to the Moon? Because it was the last option I had. Do you know how hard it was for me to—”

Celestia was cut off mid-sentence as she disappeared with a pop.

Twilight, her horn glowing bright purple, stared at the space Celestia had occupied moments ago. “I didn’t think it would actually work,” she mused aloud. “I… I just banished Celestia.” As that thought sunk into to Twilight’s brain, worming its way into her consciousness, she smiled. “I just banished Celestia! Hahaha! I did it!” She jumped up from her seat and onto the desk. With a kick of her hooves, she danced a little jig atop the desk. Papers and pens and books went flying to and fro as she gyrated her body wildly.

A few moments later, after hearing all the commotion, a guardspony entered the room cautiously. As he slowly opened the door, he saw Twilight still standing on her desk. His mouth opened slightly.

“Umm, excuse me, Princess Twilight? Is everything… all right?”

Twilight froze, looked over to the guard and let a wide grin split her face. “Yep, everything’s peachy.”

He nodded slowly. “Okay, because I heard some… sounds, and I just wanted to make sure things were, umm, fine.”

“All quiet on the western front,” said Twilight cheerily.

“Riiiiiight. Anyway, have you seen Celestia? She came in here earlier, but I didn’t see her leave.”

Twilight’s smile quickly faded away. “Oh? She did? Hmm, maybe I can help you find her.”

The guard smiled. “Thanks, but I’m sure she’ll—”

“Aaaaaaaaand gone.” Wiping her hooves off, Twilight curled her lips up and blew on her horn. She hopped down from the desk and made her way past what remained of the guard, some armor and a spear, pushing past the door and into the hallway.

As Twilight strolled through the halls of Canterlot Castle, she couldn’t help but feel an immense sense of satisfaction at having been so clever as to devise a way to rid herself of other ponies. Suddenly, all the little things that had bothered her before seemed to melt away like pats of butter on a hot skillet. No more, ‘Good morning, Princess Twilight!’. Gone. No more, ‘What’d you do that for, Princess Twilight?’ Gone. Never again would she have to hear, ‘Why, Princess Twilight? Why?’ Gone. ‘No, Wait! Stop!’ Gone. ‘My family!’ Gone. ‘ My wife!’ Gone. ‘My cat!’ Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.

Twilight let out a long, slow sigh. Banishment was exhausting. It had only been an hour and over half of the castle had been banished. Only half, she corrected herself. There was still much work left to be done. Even her friends would not be spared.

Hey, Rainbow Dash. What’s up? You think the castle feels kinda empty? Well, that’s probably because—Gone. Oh, hi there, Applejack. Looking for Rainbow Dash? Well, she’s—Gone. Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity? What are you girls—Gone. Not even Spike, who had been through thick and thin with her, who had weathered every storm, endured every bout of insanity, was safe from the Banishing.

“Yo, Twilight!” shouted Spike as he waved at her from down the hall. His little feet smacked against the marble floors, echoing through the deathly silent halls as he ran towards Twilihgt. When he finally reached her, he doubled over, hands on his knees, wheezing and coughing. ‘Something weird is going on,” he said, in between ragged breaths, “I can’t find anypony anywhere.”

Twilight looked down at him, expressionless. “No one?”

He shook his head. “Everyone’s gone missing.”

She nodded. “Good. Then I’m making excellent progress.”

Spike cocked his head to the side. “Progress? With what? What’s going on?”

“Oh, I’m in the middle of banishing everypony to the Moon,” she said, nonchalantly. “It’s really a lot more work than I had originally anticipated.”

“You’re… banishing everyone?”

“Yup.”

“But… why?”

Twilight smiled cheerfully. “Oh, Spike, you silly goose. It’s not about why, it’s about—Gone.”

Buffing her chest, Twilight surveyed her handiwork. With Spike out of the picture, she had successfully rid herself of all the Canterlot Castle ponies, and one dragon. She took a deep breath. No she just had the rest of the world to go.

---

Days, weeks, months, and years passed in the blink of an eye. Twilight devoted herself to ridding the world of every single living thing. She started with ponies, then moved on to other sentient creatures. Not content with just that, she then moved on to non-sapient lifeforms, until eventually there was nothing left. Not a single soul, besides her own, was left on the planet. Dozens, or maybe hundreds or thousands of years had passed since her quest began. She had stopped keeping track long ago. For all she knew, millennia had come and gone in the time since she started, but all that was irrelevant now. There was only silence.

When she was sure that she had completed her journey, Twilight found her way back to where it all began: Canterlot Castle. She wandered through the halls, past the empty chairs and empty tables of the dining hall, and the empty bedrooms of the west wing. A joyful silence hung over the place. However, in spite of her bliss, Twilight couldn’t help but feel a certain nagging sensation, like she had missed something, something important.

After a time, she came upon a door, one she had not seen before. She pressed her hoof against its exterior and attempted to push it open, but it refused to budge. Frowning, she looked around for a way to open it. A small hole, near the center of the door, looked promising. It was about the size of her horn, and maybe, just maybe, that would be the secret. She tilted her head down and filled the hole with her horn. Immediately light blasted out of the hole and ran up lines along the door, filling the room with a light blue glow.

Twilight took her horn out and stepped back as the light lines split open and revealed a passageway that was wholly new to Twilight. Lining the walls were torches that had long since burnt out, only wax puddles remained, hanging off the edge of the holders like stalagmites.

“I’ve never seen this room before,” Twilight mused aloud. “I wonder where it leads?”

With a shrug, she decided to venture into the pitch black passageway. She brought light to the tip of her horn and then created a single ball, allowing it to float above her as she continued. It illuminated the decaying hallway with an eerie glow, allowing Twilight to see the cobwebs and mold that had managed to overwhelm the hall. It likely had not been used for years, decades even.

Further and further she pushed, past what seemed like thousands upon thousands of dead torches. Eventually, after an indeterminate amount of time, Twilight came upon another door. This one was simple, and wooden. She thrust it open with a wave of her horn and stepped into a dimly-lit room. Scrolls, books, quills, and inkwells littered the tiny room. A candle upon a desk flickered weakly, illuminating the face of the pony sitting at that desk. She wore no expression, and her eyes seemed faded. Her mane, still that inky black, seemed to flow less blithely, and her hooves shook as she pushed herself up.

Twilight stared in silence at the other pony, watching emotionlessly as she stood up and walked around to the other side of the desk.

“Twilight,” she said, “I was wondering when you’d find me here.”

“Princess Luna. I thought I’d banished you long ago.”

“It would seem not, wouldn’t it? Unless, of course, I’m not actually here and you’re just imagining things.”

Twilight let out a single laugh. “No, I doubt that you’re just an illusion. I haven’t lost my sanity yet.”

Luna, despite being immortal, looked as though she had aged a thousand years. Her features sagged and she moved slowly, deliberately. “I’ve been here for decades,” she said, “waiting, watching, searching. I was here the day you banished my sister, and I hid for fear of the same happening to me.”

Twilight said nothing.

“I wasn’t sure what happened to you to make you do that, but now I don’t care anymore. I’ve devoted all of my time and energy to finding a way to bring them back.”

“Bring them back? Why?”

Luna placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Because I know what a thousand years of loneliness does to a pony. I know the pain and suffering you would face, even more so knowing you did it to yourself. I couldn’t let that happen again, not to anyone.”

Twilight considered her. “So why haven’t you brought anypony back yet?”

Luna sighed. “I can’t. I’m not strong enough. If I were to become Nightmare Moon, then perhaps, but I won’t ever walk that path again. The cost is too high.”

“So then you failed?”

Luna shook her head slowly. “Not exactly. I found another way. I can still bring them back… but I need your help. Together we can undo what you did. We can change things back to the way they were, fix everything.” Her eyes hardened as she stared into Twilight’s eyes. “But I need you to do that. You have to be willing to help me.”

“After all the work I’ve done. After the years I spent completing my greatest achievement, you want me to undo it all?” Twilight chuckled. “Oh, Luna. Why in the world would I do that?”

“I can see it in your eyes,” Luna said, after a pause. “I can see that you miss them, your friends, and Celestia. You want them back, but you’re afraid to admit it to yourself. You’re afraid of what retribution you might face. You want them returned to you more than anything, but you can’t bare to face your mistakes.” She paused again, blinking. “I should know. You have the same eyes I did all those years ago. The loneliness, the profound sense of emptiness you’ll face is the most soul-crushing experience you’ll ever have. Just like I was saved by you, I wish to save you from that fate… from the fate I once had.”

Twilight was silent for a few seconds. She pursed her lips, then said, “You don’t get it do you, Luna? I’m not like you. Loneliness is my happiness. I’ve got everything I ever wanted. Well… almost everything.”

Luna’s eyes widened. “Wait, Twilight. Think about what you’re—”

“Gone.”

She waited a moment before allowing the silence to settle in once more. It consumed her, enveloping her like a warm blanket. Finally, after an eternity of searching, she had found true happiness.