Is the job of the Royal sisters done? Do they even want it, still?

[ManaMinori 4,149]

I think the original goal that Starswirl and the leaders of the 3 pony tribes approached Sunbutt and Luna with was to uphold the peace and unity that they founded Equestria on- because they were Alicorns, and best stood for everything the founders established the country on, love, harmony, friendship. (According to the Journal of the Two Sisters). And For generations, they have succeeded in doing that. In addition, there have been three new Alicorns to represent and unify the nation, 5 embassadors of Friendship, a former dragon lord who works at bringing peace between international relations with other species with the pony race, a spirit of chaos who can further ensure peaceful stability for the Equestrian nation- Needless to say, the ponies have some powerful, and long-lived allies to ensure their prosperity, as the HWE tribe leaders intended.

 

So is the job of the royal sisters, the Alicorns hoof-picked to ensure the longevity of peaceful era for Equestria finished? Can they step down from their rulership and live normal lives, perhaps returning to whatever lands they originated from?

 

The IDW comic gives us a glimpse of the duties in a day of the life of Sunbutt, and to imaine over a thousand years of such diplomacy, duties, strict schedule, and mundne tasks of her own, as well as the additional responsi8 of Luna while she was banished, seems incredibly tiresom and stressful to bear, coupled with the grief of losing a sister and a mirrorverse love interest. The series itself also depicts Sunbutt as rarely getting a time to cut loose and be normal. The Journal of the Two Sisters also touches on how they used to be free and adventurous as foals, before being burdoned with the duties of princesshood and ushers of harmony to a nation.

 

Question is- do the sisters want their life as foals back- free of responsibility, adventurous, now that others can step up to the plate and continue bringing harmony?

 

A passage from Sunbutt in the journal says the following: "it's not every day that you're asked to rule over an entire land. I clarified that our role in Equestria wouldn't be as rulers and we will not think of the ponies of Equestria as our subjects. That would be very awkward. We will be Equestria's guardians. That sounds much friendlier. We will serve and protect, watching over Equestria's lands and skies, keeping them keeping them peaceful and safe." Frankly, with the introduction of the official "Guardians of Harmony" line, in toys and comics, I think that the torch has been passed, and the sisters can indeed go on their merry way, leaving Equestria in good hooves, claws, and paws.

Edited March 18, 2017 by Nightmare Muffin

[Malcontent 196]

A reasonable conclusion. I supposed that they were getting close to death myself and why she was so eager to choose a successor.  

 

"Well know she's that much more ready"

 

Twas in my blog:p 

 

I do find the theory that they simply suck the life from their successors and that's why they rule so long. 

[Unlikeable Pony 2,700]

Duty isn't about what you WANT to be done, but about what you know MUST be done.

celestia has a deep sense of loyalty to her subjects-- we've seen numerous times that they're veritable lemmings without a strong leader around to guide them, and the other nations of the world, WITHOUT a god being ruling over them are even WORSE (the Griffons, the yaks, the dragons, ect.). Its FAR too early for her to step down from leadership.

maybe in the future she could rest easy and retire knowing that the world is in good hooves, but that's a LONG way away, even with twilight newly ascended-- there's an ever increasing number of new territories that need governance (the crystal empire popped out of nowhere, so Cadence didn't so much ease Celestia's burden as pick up a brand new one, and the changeling race as a whole is a new factor and kingdom), so responsibilities are increasing, not decreasing.

[ManaMinori 4,149]

A reasonable conclusion. I supposed that they were getting close to death myself and why she was so eager to choose a successor.  

 

"Well know she's that much more ready"

 

Twas in my blog:p 

 

I do find the theory that they simply suck the life from their successors and that's why they rule so long.

 

possibly. That quote does heavily imply that the elder alicorns were grooming Twilight for their own duties... even the scene in "Trade Ya", where Twilight had to govern the squabbles of the peasants over unfair trades was similar to what court Luna had to sit through in the comic where she took over her sister's duties for the day.

[Snow 8,593]

you seem to have completely looked past or at but disregarded the fact the two are responsible for maintaining a balanced solar and lunar cycle, without Celestia and MoonButt day and night would revert to chaotic disarray, that and friendship isn't even what the royal sisters are there for at all, twilight isn't there to replace them, but to do a job they quite simply don't do :/ the same goes same for Cadence.
the royal sisters rule most of equestria and control day and night, twilight is doing her thing with friendship. both are still very important and nobody is replacing anybody. (until a director decides to throw in a curve ball and makes it happen) (which hopefully it doesn't)

Edited March 18, 2017 by JU88snow

[KrazyDashie 1,847]

you seem to have completely looked past or at but disregarded the fact the two are responsible for maintaining a balanced solar and lunar cycle, without Celestia and MoonButt day and night would revert to chaotic disarray, that and friendship isn't even what the royal sisters are there for at all, twilight isn't there to replace them, but to do a job they quite simply don't do :/ the same goes same for Cadence.

the royal sisters rule most of equestria and control day and night, twilight is doing her thing with friendship. both are still very important and nobody is replacing anybody. (until a director decides to throw in a curve ball and makes it happen) (which hopefully it doesn't)

yeah, im going to have to agree with you here... though there were groups of unicorns that were in charge of raising the sun and moon, so if celestia and luna "stopped" unicorns could take charge again. but then again, that could be a long lost spell or need a great amount of unicorns to do it.

[ManaMinori 4,149]

you seem to have completely looked past or at but disregarded the fact the two are responsible for maintaining a balanced solar and lunar cycle, without Celestia and MoonButt day and night would revert to chaotic disarray, that and friendship isn't even what the royal sisters are there for at all, twilight isn't there to replace them, but to do a job they quite simply don't do :/ the same goes same for Cadence.

the royal sisters rule most of equestria and control day and night, twilight is doing her thing with friendship. both are still very important and nobody is replacing anybody. (until a director decides to throw in a curve ball and makes it happen) (which hopefully it doesn't)

not only has it been shown, both in the Journal, and in HWE, that unicorns could do the same, so could Discord (The Return of Harmony), and Twilight (Twilight's Kingdom). And even if Sunbutt and Luna kept responsibility for the day and night cycles, I doubt they needed to remain in political power to do those duties.

[Snow 8,593]

@@Nightmare Muffin, but why don't they need to be in political power? they are well established and have good reputation and relations with other leaders, not to mention they still have quite some time left, it would serve no good for them to just stop doing what they are doing, twilight was practically recruited to just solve friendship problems, she isn't expected to rule equestria or anything, she has turned into the go-to pony for all of the dangers facing equestria, it would be too much of a workload to manage friendship and an entire kingdom, its split workload at best man, no replacing or retiring necessary.
PS: MoonButt

Edited March 18, 2017 by JU88snow

[Unlikeable Pony 2,700]

While I think that celestia and luna are 100% required in the world, and they KNOW it, I do think that it would be absurdly easy to have the show come up with a spell being cast by them as a "last gesture" before retiring that normalized the sun and the moon to work without them. Just use an artifact like the EOH or other objects (hell, introduce a sun and moon stone connected to the two celestial objects) and its not too hard to accept.


THAT BEING SAID, their POLITICAL importance is far greater than their magical importance-- Starswirl had them corronated for their political implications, not their magical ones, though that ended up being a happy bonus.
there would need to be a great deal of training and reforms done to impliment them stepping down-- though, funnily enough, Twilight training students like Starlight under her could be seen as a first step, since Starlight is seemingly destined to be a leader of ponies in how she had her town, and if twilight begins training more students in that vain, you could easily get an order of ruler ponies to replace the monarchy.

[cmarston1 5,964]

Maybe if the show bothered to gave them, and especially Celestia,  some decent screentime every once and a while, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

[Marimo 555]

 

 

not only has it been shown, both in the Journal, and in HWE, that unicorns could do the same

Except the journal also showed that it caused so much magical strain that the unicorns who performed this task eventually stopped being able to cast their magic.

 

 

 

so could Discord (The Return of Harmony)

Discord is really not reliable enough to handle a task that needs to be done twice a day, every day. He would eventually get bored and wind up putting his own spin on how the sun and moon works, or would probably just forget at times and it'd be hard to contact him considering he doesn't even seem to live in the same realm.

 

 

 

and Twilight (Twilight's Kingdom)

Only because Celestia and Luna gave Twilight their own magic.