Reports of increased solar intensity come in from across Equestria and Celestia's power seems to be in a mysterious state of flux. Furthermore, there have been sightings of a new alicorn, covered in fire and bringing with it a wave of wanton destruction. How are these events connected and what is the secret of Equestria's past that now threatens to unravel the realm?
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Image credits: Twilight, Daybreaker, Background

Story inspired by this image and caption.

While playing a game of scrabble with Rarity, Twilight Sparkle accuses her of making up a word.

Rarity disagrees.

Dedicated to Carabas.

Special thanks to SigmasonicX for the prompt, and RBDash47 for the scrabble rules nitpicking.

"Do not speak to us of flame or wrath! Lest we show thee what the words truly mean!"

Twilight, Starlight, and Trixie go back in time to answer two questions: why did Celestia become Daybreaker, and how did Equestria survive?

Note: This story assumes the events of Friendmaker, but can also be read on its own.

Princess Twilight and Rarity are dating.

The other Rarity in Twilight's life isn't quite sure how she feels about any of this.

When Twilight Sparkle acquired the Power Pony comic-book spell, she thought all her bookworm dreams had come true. Sadly, her plans to live through every Daring Do novel are cut short when Rarity asks they try a romance novel.

It's one thing to reenact a cheesy dramatic love scene with your significant other. It's another thing entirely having to rescue them from being the permanent main character of a book. Literally.

Special thanks to the wonderful Maxi for the coverart! // Based off a ficlet I wrote a few years ago.

Celestia: a filly of twelve. A cynical, hungry pauper, with a young sister to protect and feed.

But the food has run out. Winter has gripped the land for too long, and now the pair face starvation.

The cynic in Celestia knows she can't move the sun. But the child in her wonders... and so she tries.

(Inspired by the Donovan song of the same name.)

(Now with a dramatic reading here, by Crafty Arts, and here, by KeyframeProductions.)

(Now with a Spanish translation here.)

Octavia Melody's love of music has revolved around a single influential and prestigious work of art, the song May Our Sun Shine Forever. Since she was a filly, what has been the Equestrian national anthem for generations has continually inspired Octavia to perform, shaping her into the promising cellist she is today. Though the completed original was lost to the passage of time, the remnants of the final masterpiece composed by the Grand Maestro Glissando has been the cornerstone of not only Octavia's career, but modern music theory in Equestria.

When the tattered remains of an ancient songbook possibly containing the original song in its entirety is found, the Equestrian Society for the Performing Arts and Princess Luna begin planning a concert series to celebrate the work's eventual restoration. However, their meeting screeches to a halt once Princess Celestia vehemently forbids anypony from playing the original in the concert and demands its restoration to cease immediately. Octavia Melody finds herself at a loss, wondering why the princess of the sun would silence such a beautiful song meant to bring light to the world.

Proofread and Edited by TheAncientPolitzanian and various others over the years of trying to fix this thing.
Cover Art Depressing Melody by TertonDA
Updated 02/27/24

Celestia is a princess, elegant, regal, and certainly not secretly trying to mess with everyone around her for her own amusement...

Brought to you by watching Jordanis play Untitled Goose Game a bunch. Plus having Celestia be the goose instead of making Celestia deal with the goose was also his idea, and he edited it super well, so pretty much this is Jordanis' story, I just wrote bits of it.

Story is now complete!

Princess Celestia invites the monarch of Griffonstone over for a nice cup of tea. Unfortunately, a young Twilight's gone a little crazy after staying up for days straight reading through the entire Con Mane series. What follows just might be remembered as the worst international incident of the century.

Art commed from Lulubell.

Principal Celestia always has wings in her dreams.

They got her into trouble, once. She let herself believe that they meant she was an angel. Then she grew up, and learned some hard lessons about what being an angel really required.

Now six magical girls have just fought a demon in front of her school. And her phantom wings are itching.

Her life is turning upside down ... and she hasn't even heard about Equestria yet.

Rated Highly Recommended (Top 15 Stories Sitewide) by Present Perfect! "It's f**king flawless, you guys. … The first [6]00-word chapter by itself is a masterpiece."

"Literally the single best EqG story on the site." —Professor Plum
"[One] of the best stories on the site, period." —Pearple Prose
"One of my all-time favorite pieces of fanfiction." –brokenimage321
"My favorite EQG fic of absolute all." -Skywriter

Rated Why Haven't You Read This Yet? by PaulAsaran! "I might have been skeptical going in, but horizon knocked it out of the park."

Rated 5/5 by csquared08! "The opening chapter here was truly something else. ... Then I hit the end of chapter 3. holy crap."

Rated ★★★★ by Louder Yay! "A lesser writer might have made a horrible, cliché-ridden mess of this story, but fortunately horizon is not a lesser writer. For a start, it's by some distance the best portrayal of the human world's Celestia I've read."

Third place in the "Under the Sun" June 2017 Writeoff!  (That first draft has been revised and expanded for FIMFiction.) Praise for the Writeoff version:

"Holy cow ... That's how you write an EqG fanfic! You captured the heart and SOUL of this/your version of Principal Celestia, wrapped it up in bi-universal consistency, and sold me on an idea of redemption I didn't even know I needed." —Xepher

"This is gorgeous. A thorough, exhaustive, incredibly moving portrait of a character who I don't think I've ever seen get quite this much development or attention." —Posh

"This is actually, after all these years, an original take on a story on Luna's banishment. If that's not something to be celebrated I don't know what is." —Quill Scratch, Radio Writeoff

MORE REVIEWER PRAISE: Rated "Definitely Read" by Super Trampoline! Reviewed by City of Doors! Reviewed by Titanium Dragon! Featured on Equestria Daily!

Rated T for brief cursing and alcohol use. Cover art by Seniloko, used under Creative Commons license.

Translations:

中文 - 行政天使