All Tartarus had basically broken loose. Foals were screaming, mares were fainting, stallions were screaming and the Mayor and her guards were trying, failing, to keep order and Luna was dead!
Sunny had started crying. I didn’t know Alicorns could die. Sugarcoat shot a sleep spell at somepony. The formerly-starry mane had solidified into a limp blue. Lemon fiddled with the microphone, frantically trying to get it back on. She’s dead and she died angry at me.
Indigo flew out to the door and screamed, falling back into the crowd, trying to beat the fire off herself. The way was blocked with a wall of flames and so were the windows. It was boiling inside. My teacher’s corpse began to smoke. Sour was shouting death threats at whatever killed her and set her restaurant alight. The flames stayed at the exits though, their crackling sounding almost like laughter.
A gigantic pony burst into view above Luna with a flash of burning light. She stood at twice my own height, with a mane and tail of pure fire. Her teeth were daggers and they twisted into a manic smile and her white coat was coated with hundreds of wounds and scratches, dripping blood onto the stage. She stamped a hoof covered in golden armor.
“My little ponies.” The Alicorn said.
The crowd stopped panicking.
“I have returned and this is the welcoming you give me? You would greet your god with a farcical play and a droning speech. Pathetic!”
Her voice boomed and knocked me out my chair. I hit the floor with a burst of pain. The fuck is happening? Luna's dead and who the fuck are you? Did you do this, you fire-haired elk?
“You’re… you’re Celestia, aren’t you?” Smolder stuttered, her head poking up from behind a chair.
“Correct, dragon. After a millennium trapped roasting in the Sun, it positively cools my heart to see that something still recognizes me.”
“Did you kill her? Luna?”
“Of course, Unicorn. She was weak. She is unfit to rule Equestria. I, Daybreaker, am not. My reign begins today."
“Like Tartarus you are! A psycho like you ain’t fit to rule this country. Why don’t you buck off to wherever you came from?” Yelled a large stallion, standing up and pointing at the killer.
“Cute. It thinks it can win.” Daybreaker scoffed. She fired a ray of magic from her horn. It hit Bright Mac and turned him to ash.
“Pa!” Yelled a pair of foals, rushing over to cry over his remains. The rest of the crowd, me included, took a step back. Whatever this creature was, I did not plan on fighting it. I liked Luna. Okay, I loved Luna. She was like a mother to me. Well, more like a crazy aunt who’s really wise and also addicted to gambling, but I’m not about to go and get killed trying to avenge her.
“And it begins, mortals. Dragon, take a note.”
Smolder obliged, terrified, and climbed out from under the furniture. After she had, a pen and stack of paper appeared in her claws. Both were ornate, decorated with gold leaf and sparkling filigree. Almost like a complete opposite of the orders Luna gave me.
“Until every Unicorn, Pegasus and Earth Pony swears their eternal and undying fealty to me, the Sun will remain in the sky. For every day this request goes unfulfilled, I shall draw it nearer to Equestria. In one day, your crops will wither and die. In one week, you water shall evaporate away. In one month, you will burst into flames. If one single pony refuses to comply, the world shall be destroyed. If one single pony lies or is insincere, I shall know and I will double the rate at which your homeland burns. Do not disappoint me, Equestria. Your lives do depend on it.
Signed, Daybreaker, Princess of the Sun”
The crowd stood in stunned silence. You know, that actually explained a lot. Like why I feel like shit and my magic isn’t working properly. Like why the Sun was still up even though it’s night-time.
“Send that edict to every city, town, and village, Dragon. Once you have completed that task, prepare to be devoured.” Daybreaker said as a golden cage materialized around Smolder, trapping her inside with the stack of letters. She gulped and picked up the pace of her writing.
“Farewell, my little ponies. Once all of you are obedient, my Empire will truly begin. Until then, choose wisely.” The Alicorn said. Once finished, the air around her started to spark and smoke, slowly filling the room with fog. I dropped to the ground, trying to keep low and fire off a Teleport. The sooner I could get out of here, the sooner I could get back to Canterlot, and get Starlight Glimmer.
I used to hate the Princess of Equality more than anything. Except now I had a deranged megalomaniac to deal with and another Alicorn’s firepower might come in handy. But no matter how much magic I channeled into my horn, no matter how I commanded the space around me to twist and warp, nothing happened. I was stuck in the building, about to fry like bacon.
I started to cough. The smoke had started to cool, and sink. I gasped, and ripped a length of fabric off my dress and wrapped it around my face and started to crawl for the exit. From what little I could see through the grey clouds, the fire had cleared from that at least. I stayed close to the walls, keeping out the way of the stampeding horde. I had no real desire to get crushed to death tonight. Or today. Or whatever this screwed-up time is.
Something clicked in my mind. Magic. I finally had enough of it for a Teleport. I shot it off, picturing my bedroom back in the Palace. The world blurred and tore and warped and I reappeared moments later. Standing right outside the burning building. How convenient. I suppose I might as well at least try to save somepony if legging it isn’t an option anymore. At least Smolder is fireproof.
I shot a Demolition spell at the wall of the restaurant. It blew apart like a house of cards and I started grabbing anything vaguely pony-shaped with my magic and throwing it out the building. I heard a few nasty crunches but hey, better a broken leg than a burned-off face. After I few minutes of that, I felt like fainting myself. Ponyville had a way larger population than I’d guessed and damn, were those hicks heavy. Soon though, a few other Unicorns pitched in and we’d managed to get nearly everyone out before the roof caved in. I hope Smolder’s alright, but then again that cage looked pretty much indestructible and I doubt Daybreaker would seriously follow through on her threat. After all, what’s the point of ruling over an empty desert?
“Sunset! I’m so glad you’re okay!” Sunny said, pushing through the crowd of survivors and trying to hug me to death.
“I’m not okay. The closest thing I had to a parent just got incinerated and I don’t have a fucking idea what to do next.”
“Oh. Oh, yes. I’m so sorry.”
“I don’t want your sympathy. Let go. I’m going to try and figure out how to fix this.”
“Face it, we screwed. There’s no way in Equestria we can kill an Alicorn.” Sugarcoat said, brushing the ash off her coat.
“Bullshit. I’m the most powerful Unicorn in Equestria. If anypony can take out Daybreaker, it's me.” I said, starting back to Sunny’s house, which seemed like as good a place as any to start trying to figure out how I was going to save the world.
“And Daybreaker is an Alicorn. She’d kill you and barely break a sweat. Look, Sunset, this is suicide. I don’t think even Starlight Glimmer could defeat her. Did you see what she did?”
“Yeah, Sugarcoat, I saw it. And that’s why I’m going to murder her. I just need to figure out how first.”
“Have fun spending the rest of your life in my library then.” She said, before starting back to her house.
“Great. If you have a library, why don’t you show the Magic section? Maybe something there could help?” I said. Okay, this is officially the worst-case scenario. I am actually planning to open a book and learn something. And it only took the Princess being killed to make it happen.
“Fine. Considering how much alcohol you’re covered in, maybe you’ll make a pretty fireball when you die pointlessly.”
“Lead the way.”
I had spent the last two hours dying of boredom in a library and had nothing to show for it. To her credit, Sugarcoat had at least tried to help, in between bouts of reprimanding me for ignoring her sorting system. Listen, you grey-haired misanthrope, I might not know much about books or about how to sort them but I can pretty safely say that nonfiction does not go in alphabetical order. Seriously, you go to all the trouble of hollowing out a damn tree and then you half-ass the part of the job that actually matters?
But I’m getting distracted. I still feel like shit and I can’t focus. The town’s still chaos and nobody’s actually taken charge of that mess since the Mayor’s currently buried until half a ton of rubble along with everypony else in this place that could qualify as a community leader.
“Tea, dearie? You look terribly parched.” Said Sunny, walking into the room, carrying a tray and a stack of books.
“Fuck it, sure. Trying to down a cup of that poison’s probably going to be more useful than committing suicide by bookcase.”
“Maybe you should go back to bed? That and a shower would probably do wonders right about now.” Sunny offered, giving me a cup of tea. I levitated it down on a shelf.
“I’m not sleeping until I figure this out. I’ve pulled all-nighters before, I’ll live.”
“I do suppose you have, but still, I don’t think your teacher was murdered last time you needed to.”
“Shut up. Don’t talk about her.”
“I’m sorry. I guess I’ll go now then.” She said, starting out of the room. Just as she reached the door, she turned, “Do keep in mind that I’m here if you need me.”
“I don’t. Like, go do first aid on ponies or something.”
She sighed and walked out. I returned to scanning the treehouse for anything of use. Of course, being stuck in a mostly Earth Pony town in the middle of nowhere didn’t mean Sugarcoat exactly had a large stock of anything magical. The most information I actually found about this Daybreaker pony was in a book of fairy tales. She played the role of a bogeyman, the sort of thing that parents would threaten their children with if the brats didn’t choke down their vegetables. I am glad I never had to go through any of that. It sounds equal parts tooth-rottingly saccharine and brain-rottingly boring.
Anyway, according to Everfree Fairy Tales, Daybreaker was originally Celestia, Luna’s older sister and bearer of the Sun. That much I remember from Cheerilee’s play. Following off of that, Celestia apparently went batshit crazy and tried to kill her sister over something that effectively boiled down to an argument over whether pancakes or waffles were better. She then flips her shit and turns into Daybreaker and starts murdering ponies right and left until Luna eventually finds this set of magical artifacts and banished her sister to the Moon, thereby cementing the supremacy of waffles for millennia to come.
The artifacts themselves sounded like the key here. Sure, Luna could take Daybreaker in a fight easy, she was smarter and faster and didn’t resort to mindlessly incinerating everything. But the thing is, Alicorns are immortal. Killing her wouldn’t solve the problem, it’d only delay for a few weeks until Celestia’s body reformed and the whole schlep restarted. So Luna had to track down these six bits of pure magic called The Elements of Harmony and use those to give her sister the time out of the century by sticking her crazy ass in the Sun for all eternity.
Like, talk about punishment, okay? The storybook played this off in a single sentence but, shit, that is pretty metal. I mean, imagine spending a thousand years having your flesh roasted off but never actually dying from it. No wonder Daybreaker’s first act as Princess was to kill her own sister. If I had one, I probably would too. I’m still going to stop her though.
“Any luck, Sunset Shimmer? Or has the smoke damage finally started affecting your brain functions?” Sugarcoat asked.
“Yeah, actually.”
“Good. Do you want me to get a helmet for you, or should I just arrange a padded cell at the inn?”
“No, you cunt, I mean that I have an answer.”
Sugarcoat blinked. “What?”
“You heard me, I figured out how to take out Daybreaker and save the world. You’re welcome.”
“That’s a storybook. I read to the foals every Hearth’s Warming. You know those things aren’t factually correct, right?” She said, pointing to the book.
“Hey, if it’s a choice between old mare’s tales and being roasted alive, I’ll pick the former.”
“The choice also includes being a sensible pony and just accepting her as your new ruler. As far as we know, she might actually be reasonable.”
“If genocide if reasonable, then I’m a fucking saint. Sugarcoat, are you even listening to yourself? This is our only shot. There’s no way in Tartarus every single damn pony is actually going to sell themselves into slavery here.”
“Then I don’t suppose we have a choice.”
“No, dumbass, we never did. Now, if you excuse me, I am going to the Everfree Forest and fetching the Elements before things start catching fire.” I said, walking out of the library and taking the book. I left the tea.
The wave of heat hit me like a train. The sun had definitely gotten closer. I starting sweating instantly and nearly tripped over my own hooves and fell face first into the yellow grass.
“Hey, careful there. I don’t want you dying on us, Sunset.” Lemon Zest said, catching me.
“Thanks, but I’m not going just yet. Now, if you excuse me, I have a world to save.”
“It’s really brave of you to try that all on your own. And by brave, I mean stupid! Are you insane?” Sour Sweet said, standing next to Lemon.
“Yeah. I always wanted to kill an Alicorn.” Indigo Zap said, kicking the air.
“And besides, Sunset, I think its probably for the best if we actually arrange some supplies before venturing into the Everfree Forest.” Sunny agreed.
“There’s no ‘we’ here. I work best alone.”
“Trust me, you don’t. The entire time you’ve been here, you’ve had your assistant telling you what to do next. And then when she was captured, you came running to me.” Sugarcoat said, walking out of her library.
“I keep Smolder around for admin. Not for fighting. Have you seen her? And here I thought Dragons weren’t all cowards.”
“Hey, if I can kick your flank, so can Daybreaker,” Indigo said, landing next to me.
“And besides, a little backup wouldn’t hurt. That and that fiery-haired bitch trashed my restaurant and I’m going to hack her wings off myself and melt her stupid crowndown into gold ingots.”
“Fine. I need somepony to carry my stuff anyway. If you ponies really want to play heroes, meet me here in an hour.
Sunny and I walked back to her house in silence, after ignoring her the first few times, she got the message. My head still pounded and I doubt inhaling half a lung of smoke made that problem any better. We stepped into the store and I headed for the bathroom while Sunny busied herself with packing supplies or mourning her melted sister or whatever.
Even after I turned the cold tap all the way on, the water was still steaming hot. Her shampoo smelled like cotton candy. I considered using magic to comb the thousands of knots out my mane, but the dull thump in my skull intensified after lighting my horn. I stopped, and the headache almost started going away. I grabbed a brush with my mouth and used that. I was years out of practice after using magic to do everything, it was almost scary. How weak I was after just one day of everything falling to shit.
It occurred to me that Luna wasn’t dead. Well, not exactly. She was immortal after all. But, at the time, I hadn’t exactly realized that because 99% of ponies actually die when they’re killed. And even after that, it’d take her months probably to put herself back together and that’s only if Daybreaker didn’t do something before that. I decided not to let that happen. I turned off the taps and grabbed a towel, wrapped it around my mane and walked out of the room.
Sunny was lying on the bed. Not particularly erotically or anything, she was just there and paging through a book. Which sort of made sense, considering this was her room. “Are you alright Sunset?” She asked, sitting up.
“Yeah. I’ll live. You’re out of shampoo by the way.” I said, starting for the door.
“You know you can talk to me, right? You really don’t look alright.” She said, following.
“I’ve got a Dragon for sappy shit. I don’t need a complete stranger to vent to. Let’s just get this Daybreaker thing over with and then maybe I’ll think about us and having a heartfelt conversation.”
“Okay. Okay then. I packed you a rucksack, by the way. It can’t hurt to be prepared.” Sunny said, pushing a heavy bag of useless junk into my hooves.
“Sure. Thanks. I’ll be really happy that I got a bag of cookies and a thermos of tea standing between me and a pissed-off fire god. Let’s just go, okay? We’re literally burning daylight here.”