//------------------------------// // 55 - Diem Contere // Story: Change: Queen of The Hive // by tom117z //------------------------------// It was time. Twilight could feel their presence. They were there, the princesses. The Empress’ eyes were her eyes, at least when it was allowed. They were there, right in the centre of the storm without the knowledge of the true raging winds around them as they spoke with Empress Immortalis herself. The Princess of the Sun and the Princess of the Moon conversed with the Empress of the Changelings, foes readying their weapons for the slightest flinch that would bring about hostilities. Hostilities that could end the war, one way or the other. Twilight so badly wanted to reach out to them. To warn them of what the Empress had in mind, had prepared in case she could not subdue the sisters while adhering to convention. But she could not, not even the slightest peep. Her soul bound, mind subdued, forced to fulfil the whims of a mad Empress and her insane beliefs in a twisted natural order. Forced to stand in preparation for a call to action, a blade striking down onto the head resting within the guillotine. And there was nothing she could do. Except hope. But even that was dying, locked within the Empress’ chains while watching her own atrocities from within. Hope in her idol, her mentor, and one of the three individuals she had ever thought of as a mother. The entrapped mare was a Changeling Queen, the slayer of Crudelis and her dragon pet. She had stood against god-like beings and various monstrosities, and above all she was both the ruler of her whole hive and a bridge between changelings and ponies. She was also very scared. Hope was all she had left, everything else stripped away by the Empress piece by piece. For the sake of her hive, and for the ponies she loved equally, she wished for Immortalis’ downfall. “Please Celestia,” Twilight whispered, still trapped within her consciousness. “Stop her. Do what you must, even if you have to kill me to do it.” “How far will you go for those you love?” “What will you do?” “What will you become?” Fires burned within Celestia, her eyes flashing orange. A recently quelled demon was relit once more. “You lie! Twilight remains beneath your control, and she will be free!” Immortalis laughed, the sound echoing against the walls of the former council chamber at the centre of the hive. Her horn began to crackle horrifically. “I welcome your attempt, alicorn.” And then she fired. A stream of green magical energy bolted forth and struck the position of the two alicorn princesses, the Princess of the Sun and Moon flapping their wings to boost away from the strike in opposite directions. Keeping their momentum and their wings spread, the two princesses moved in a uniform pincer movement around the Empress, streams of magic reaching from their horns towards the Empress in an attempt to keep her contained. Immortalis opened up a portal beneath her hooves and avoided entrapment, emerging at the room’s centre. Standing up tall, her gossamer wings raised, the Empress released a pulse of magic that impacted all around the room, catching the alicorns and sending them crashing back into the wall directly behind them respectively. With a grunt of pain the two princesses slumped down onto the floor, but did not allow themselves to linger. Forcing herself up, the Princess of the Sun charged forwards while forming a large halberd of pure magic on her grasp, swinging it downwards onto the Empress’ position. The Empress side stepped the strike, the magical weapon leaving a sizable crack in the floor where it struck. Simultaneously, the younger alicorn formed two blue coloured short swords from her own magic, each one eager to meet the Empress’ chitin. A shield flickered around Immortalis as the swords made their mark, each beating against the defence before being recalled, the magical energy being recycled into Luna’s horn as she prepared her spell. Celestia joined her sister, streams of gold and blue coalescing against the Empress shield and wearing it down. Immortalis released the shield outwards, stumbling the princesses as she formed two blades of her own and set them upon each alicorn. Luna met Immortalis’ blade with her own renewed ones, while Celestia took a step back to avoid being beheaded. She made it, but the swing took a few unlucky feathers from Celestia’s left wing. The moment the Princess of the Moon had met the Empress’ blade with her own she hadn’t let up, she swung and stabbed and attempted to break through the Empress’ own practiced counters. Luna’s ferocity was unmatched, not giving Immortalis any time to breathe. But she needn’t actually strike, just hold her attention for the moment. As the Empress found out when a golden beam of magic struck her in the side, knocking the changeling from her hooves and down hard onto the floor. Celestia was quick to follow through, forming her halberd again as she pressed towards the Empress. Before the halberd could meet its target, however, the Empress swung around and bucked out with one of her hind legs. The hold ridden hoof hit Celestia square in the muzzle, dazing the Princess and sending her to the ground. Immortalis rolled as one of Luna’s swords imbedded itself in the ground where she had just been, the Empress then sending a solitary bolt of magic flying into the alicorn. Luna’s swords were dispelled as she stumbled, grunting in pain. The Empress’s horn crackled with energy as her sights turned back to the just recovering Celestia, torrents of green energy striking forth like lightning. The magic met the Princess of the Sun and shocked through her body, eliciting a scream of pain as she was sent back down. The lightning didn’t cease, the Empress stepping forwards with bloodlust in her eyes as she gazed upon the alicorn’s intense suffering. A blue glow made itself known in the corner of her draconic eye, and the Empress made a quick step backwards, her magic ceasing, as a dark blue magical lance struck by her. Her horn still filled with power, and seeking an outlet for its rage, the Empress turned her sights on the younger sister and unleashed it all in one massive beam of magic. Luna’s horn glowed bright as she formed a shield around herself to take the brunt of the magical force, and it did. However, on impact the shield buckled and the alicorn found she was no longer on her hooves, and the wall behind her seemed to be getting awfully close extremely fast. Luna was launched through a thick stone wall and then crashed into another in the following corridor, leaving a sizable dent before slumping to the floor without consciousness. “Luna!” Celestia bellowed in distress, shaking off any pain and quickly flying through the new hole before kneeling down beside her stricken sister. Immortalis could not help but laugh, one that was a sinister eardrum piercing laugh that echoed throughout the entire hive. Her glee at this turn of events was unparalleled, and she wasn’t yet finished. “Oh poor little Luna,” Immortalis jeered, landing just behind Celestia. “But it’s not the first family member you’ve failed in recent times, is it?” A fire rising in her chest, Celestia turned to face the Empress while making herself a protective barrier between the changeling and her little sister. Her glare met the Empress’, and she made it known she was far from done. “Such spirit in you, pony,” Immortalis stated, slightly impressed. “You would have made a fine Changeling Queen, but alas you are not. You are inferior, and you and your sister will die in this hive.” “You will not harm her!” Celestia factually informed the Empress. “You will not harm anypony!” “Hollow words,” the Empress snarled. “You couldn’t save Twilight Sparkle, and now she is forever mine.” A flicker of orange passed through Celestia’s eyes. “Where is she!? You WILL release my daughter!” “But she’s not your daughter, is she?” The Empress laughed again. “And she never will be. I don’t know what she saw in you ponies.” “She is a far better changeling than you will ever be. A better person in every way.” Immortalis snorted. “Too bad she is lost to you. You will never get her back. Luna, Twilight, it matters not. They are all lost to you now. You have failed them, Princess.” Something snapped inside Celestia, and the pure fire of the sun finally burst, coursing through her veins. Everything she had been resisting with the help of her sister, the loss and rage bubbling inside, it no longer mattered. There was just her, and the one who would take those whom she loved away. Nothing else mattered but destroying her and all like her. “I love her. And I will protect her to my dying breath, you will not take MY FAMILY!” An explosion of flame that reeked of pure unfiltered hatred burst forth towards the Empress, catching her off guard and only able to place a hasty shield to protect herself. The inferno threw her back through the hole in the wall and into the throne room once more. The fire began to spread into the throne room and the surrounding area, only the unconscious Princess Luna was spared from them. As Immortalis slowly stretched out her limbs and managed to rise to her hooves she noticed a silhouette in the flames, approached her with methodical strides. She charged her horn and prepared for Celestia, but faltered slightly when she saw the alicorn that emerged. Her welcoming rainbow mane was replaced with pure fire, her regalia with dark orange pieces of armour that included shoes, a chest piece, a helmet and some along the edge of her wings; the chest piece held a sun motif while the helmet displayed a gleaming blood red gem on the very front. Her new fangs glistened hungrily, and her red and orange eyes held slits for pupils reminiscent of any Changeling Queen’s, only with the sun’s wrath blazing out from within. “You can handle Celestia,” the alicorn sneered. “But can you handle me?” “Celestia? What have you done to yourself!?” “Celestia? Perhaps that is my name, but not in this form. As I am now, my name is Daybreaker, and you would do well to remember it you insolent foal!” “Nightmare Moon…” Immortalis muttered in recollection. “So, you reveal the fire buried within your heart? Good. Now you might prove a challenge. But, I must ask, does this not go against the harmony you stand for?” Daybreaker snarled. “Harmony will not protect Luna and Twilight. This will. Equestria will be far better under my new rule! My family will be safe!” Immortalis wouldn’t deny her enjoyment of what she was seeing. “And what of balance? I doubt that sister of yours will be enthusiastic.” “She will come around, perhaps the world does have a place for Nightmare Moon, with proper direction,” Daybreaker stated, before laughing in a way that rivalled Immortalis’ own. “Besides, balance? Who needs balance when a girl really can have it all?” Dark red energies flickered around Daybreaker’s horn, and but a moment later and barrage of rage fuelled magical energies erupted from her horn towards the Empress. Immortalis’ eyes widened as she bolted upwards into the air, the magical attack completely eviscerating the wall it impacted. The Empress kept flying up and out of the throne room back into the day’s sky, though the sun had much more of an orange hue to it than it had previously. Daybreaker’s pupils dilated as she watched her opponent leave, and quickly flapped her majestic wings to fly up in pursuit. It didn’t take long for the Princess to catch up with the Empress, though the latter was ready and waiting. Immortalis gracefully flipped around to face Daybreaker and unleashed a beam of putrid green magic towards her, which Daybreaker intercepted with her own magic before both beam broke off. The whole time Daybreaker didn’t stop moving, and got close enough to snap at the changeling with her fangs, though Immortalis managed to bank to the right in order to avoid them. Immortalis formed a spear with her magic and thrust it forwards towards the alicorn, Daybreaker dropped below it and fired another beam of magic at the Empress. This spell skimmed the edge of one of the Empress’ hind legs, eliciting a suppressed shout of pain at the horrid burn left behind. Daybreaker then formed a weapon of her own, a rapier, and went for a precision strike on the changeling’s heart. The Empress only just brought up her magical spear in time to knock the rapier to one side, kicking Daybreaker in the chest to send her tumbling away. Daybreaker recovered easily, and clapped her hooves in elation while laughing in manic delight. “Oh I haven’t felt this alive in years! I’m going to memorise every moment of my cracking your skull and incinerating the insides!” Empress Immortalis snarled hatefully, thrusting her spear forwards once more. The alicorn danced around the spear joyfully before sticking her rapier through the Empress’ front left leg. “You bitch!” the Empress raged, taking the moment to dispel her spear and instead fire a bolt of magic into Daybreaker’s horn. The flaming alicorn grunted in pain as her rapier was forcibly removed from existence, not having time to react as Immortalis struck forwards and tackled the Princess. The changeling’s fangs targeted Daybreaker’s neck, but only scraped against her armoured shoe as she brought up a foreleg to protect herself. Daybreaker then grinned, and quickly began to form a maelstrom of fire around herself. In panic, Immortalis lit her horn with a teleportation spell that allowed her escape just before the inferno reduced her to ashes. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to play with fire?” Daybreaker taunted, looking around to locate where the Empress emerged. A beam of magic struck Daybreaker on the back between her wings, and with a shout she plummeted from the sky towards the ground. Back down in the hive, Luna groaned as her eyesight began to adjust itself to her environment. The flames had largely died down, but there was enough around to cause Luna to pause a moment. There was no sign of Celestia or the Empress, and as she got to her hooves she called out. “Tia?” Luna called. “Sister, where are you?” Her head was still throbbing, she knew she’d been knocked out of the fight. Still, she was now back and ready to continue. First though, she had to find them. The fires might have died down, but the scorching indicated the inferno that had raged not so long ago. She knew she couldn’t have been out for that long, minutes at most. But when she looked up towards the sky peeking through the giant hold in the roof, she saw the orange tint that dominated the sky. She also witnessed a figure come crashing back down through the roof and smack into the floor, a red shield barely protecting her from that fall. “Tia!?” Luna did a double take as she saw her sister’s stated, the alicorn being almost unrecognisable. Daybreaker let a moment of relief wash over her as she saw Luna awake and well, but her rage quickly returned as the Empress followed her down and attempted to smash her further into the floor. The alicorn rolled to the left, avoiding the changeling’s hooves. She then shot up and fired a beam of magic as the Empress, who fired back with one of equal power. The two beams locked together in a fierce struggle, each one trying to overpower the other. Luna couldn’t believe what she was seeing, she couldn’t believe that her sister had indeed fallen to her rampant emotions. She knew she had become Daybreaker, it was a path all too familiar to her. She knew she needed to stop her sister from going too far, but the Empress was the immediate threat. The Princess of the Night looked between the two combatants, each one a threat, but knew where her loyalties in the conflict laid. Immortalis was thrown again across the room as a blue bolt of magic impacted into her chest, the Empress flying up and into her throne, the structure collapsing under the strain of the impact. Daybreaker smirked, her own beam of magic breaking off but her horn remaining alight. “Not bad, Lulu.” “We’re having serious words!” Luna scolded. “I’m doing what I must,” Daybreaker maintained. “And you shall see that in time!” Luna fearlessly walked right up to her sister, muzzle to muzzle. “Do you think I’ll let you become corrupted?” “I’ve come to understand what I need to do to keep Equestria safe!” “But who will keep them safe from you?” A laugh caught their attention, and they both turned to see the Empress standing before her ruined throne. Immortalis was injured, but seemed to be taking no mind to them. “Such dysfunction. How had Equestria not fallen centuries ago?” “Silence cur!” Daybreaker demanded. “You might want to save what few breaths you have left!” “I’ll admit, I cannot win this fight. You, Daybreaker, are too powerful. An unleashed beast, unlike Celestia who would always hold back. And with your sister at your side, Nightmare Moon or otherwise, that just further shows how damned I am.” “Then surrender,” Luna stated. “Release the changelings and surrender, your trial will be fair and just.” “No trial!” Daybreaker commanded. “She dies here and now, by my hoof!” “That is not who we are, Tia!” Luna reminded. Daybreaker’s eyes narrowed at her sister. “We came here to destroy her!” “Perhaps, but the ultimate goal was to stop her. And if she surrenders, killing is no longer necessary,” Luna pointed out. “Even those who followed Serpens, you gave them a chance to live, to give themselves up! We are not murderers. If she resists then fine, but if she stands down…” “We were naïve, Luna! We should destroy threats for good! No second chances! No mercy!” “Does that include Discord?” Luna asked. “Or me?” “What?” “All those threats Twilight pacified through the magic of friendship. Will you besmirch her ideals?” “She killed Crudelis.” “But she gave her a chance, remember?” Luna pointed out. “Even at the very end she gave her a chance at redemption, and Crudelis refused.” “Well this is very entertaining,” Immortalis interrupted. “But it matters not, this isn’t the end for me either way.” Daybreaker narrowed her eyes. “Oh? And why is that?” “Because of me.” Daybreaker’s eyes widened, she knew that voice anywhere. And yet it had become so cold, so dismissive. Nevertheless, she knew Twilight Sparkle. “Twilight?” Daybreaker muttered, turning around to face the Changeling Queen. “That’s… You…” Twilight wasted no time, firing a beam of magic at the two alicorns. It was Luna who placed the shield around them both, Daybreaker having completely frozen up. “Pathetic,” Twilight jeered. “As you can see, she is completely loyal to me,” Immortalis stated. “What now, princesses?” “Twilight, you know me. Please…” Daybreaker’s hatred began to melt away. “Destroy the shield,” Immortalis commanded, firing her own magic at Luna’s barrier. Twilight followed suit, and their combined powers began to create cracks along the blue construct’s surface. “Sister, you take Immortalis. I’ll handle Twilight,” Luna stated. “No argument.” Daybreaker looked up at Immortalis, some of the rage reigniting, but not to the levels it was before. “And feel free to end her now,” Luna added. “Very well. Go!” Luna disengaged the shield, and both alicorn rolled to the side as the two beams of magic shot by them. Daybreaker shot up to Immortalis and tackled her, lighting her horn and teleporting both of them out of the building. Luna stood up, turning to face Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle, I am so sorry this happened to you.” “I’m not,” the changeling jeered. “I’m where I should be.” “Lies,” Luna dismissed. “We both know that’s not you talking.” “She’s right! Luna, I don’t want to fight you!” Twilight screamed within herself, actually saying out loud: “You know little, alicorn. And now you will die.” Twilight struck again, her lavender magic striking off against Luna’s own. They shared several strikes, each one being deflected by that of the other. Lavender and blue magic flashed throughout the throne room, clashing violently as each tried to out manoeuvre the other. Luna then teleported forwards and bucked Twilight, knocking the Queen to the floor. She attempted to bring a hoof down on her head, intent on knocking her out, but Twilight kicked out and knocked Luna’s hooves out from under her. Luna landed with a hard thud, barely rolling away as a magical lavender sword embedded itself in the floor where she had just been. Luna shot up and ignited her own, Twilight too being back on her hooves as they duelled. A loud pop heralded the emergence of a struggling alicorn and changeling, the two appearing near one of the hive’s entrances. The two grappled with one another before Daybreaker was kicked off. Both recovered quickly, and began trading spells. Each one was determined to kill the other, but one already knew the other’s resolve was shaken. “Look at you, Celestia. Even at your darkest it isn’t long before you begin to hold back again!” Immortalis taunted, easily deflecting two bolts. “Was it your sister’s words? Or being faced with Twilight? Both perhaps?” “SHUT UP!” Day Breaker unleashed an inferno towards the Empress, who sank down into a portal and emerged to Daybreaker’s right. “That’s more like it. But will it last? Who will it be I finally kill, Daybreaker or Celestia?” Daybreaker gave a shout of rage, summoning a large and highly lethal magical blade and attempting to rend the Empress in two. She succeeded in doing just that to a statue, but Immortalis was barely keeping ahead of it. “What would your little ponies think? Do you believe they could ever hold you in such reverence as you are now? The Tyrant of the Sun!” Daybreaker dispelled her sword and once more tackled the Empress, pinning her to the ground and snapping with her fangs. Immortalis used a hoof to hold her at bay, but gasped as Daybreaker’s inferno of a mane began to dance its way around her body. The fire seeped through every orifice it could, reaching her innards and beginning to fry each and every single one in what Daybreaker intended to be an excruciating demise. “How does it feel? To slowly cook in your chitin?” Daybreaker snarled, pressing a hoof on the Empress’ neck. “How does it feel to die?” “Why do you still talk? I know you could have killed me already,” Immortalis choked out. “Do it. Embrace who you are becoming.” “Soon,” Daybreaker replied. “But first…” Daybreaker’s horn touched Immortalis’, and the alicorn’s vision gave way to a distorted fields of pulsating orbs. Through Immortalis, Daybreaker was forcing her way into the hive mind. She didn’t stop to take in the sights, she knew she would only have limited time within the Empress’ realm. Searching quickly, she reached out throughout the hive mind in search for one very specific presence, and it didn’t take her long to find it. One pulsating lavender orb, Twilight’s consciousness. Daybreaker practically galloped towards it, placing her long white horn against the orb and forming a connection with it. Whatever she would have done next, it was not to be. Daybreaker was knocked off of the Empress and out of the hive mind as a blue alicorn was thrown into her, both ponies flailing as they skidded across the ground. “A valiant effort. But alas, you are not Celestia,” Twilight jeered, albeit with a noticeable limp in her step. Luna grunted as she helped herself and her sister up, bruised but not yet beaten, several fresh cuts being visible along her barrel. “Apologies for the intrusion, sister. It seems the throne room would no longer contain our difficult battle.” “That wouldn’t have been a problem for Nightmare Moon,” Immortalis stated as she too got back up, her horn charging once again. However, her magical aura seemed to sputter out just as it began, and nothing could mask the charring across her body. “I’ll never become that monster again!” “Then it’s up to Daybreaker,” Twilight sneered. “Come on then, Tyrant of the Sun, strike at us.” Twilight stepped forwards, in front of Immortalis in a way that almost seemed like she was offering her life to Daybreaker. Daring her to kill. “Step aside, Twilight,” Daybreaker demanded. “She is my victim, not you.” “She is a threat to Equestria, is she not?” the battered Empress of the Changelings sneered through her fangs. “No second chances you said, do what must be done and kill her!” Daybreaker’s eyes widened, glancing between the two changelings. She began to shake. “Twilight, it’s not your fault. You are under her control!” “Why should that matter? I’m still a threat!” Twilight almost sang. “You have chosen to be Daybreaker, now prove your commitment!” “Tia…” Luna warned. “Don’t.” “Do you really think I would?” Daybreaker asked in disbelief. “Kill her so coldly, when she could still be saved? My own… My own daughter?” “That is what Daybreaker would do,” Luna stated. “But not Celestia. So who are you, Tia?” “Yes, who are you?” Immortalis asked. “Coward, or killer?” The alicorn sagged, her rage all but gone. “Coward, any day.” A bright white flash consumed Daybreaker, wiping the corrupted alicorn away and returning Princess Celestia to view. While the Empress could never had predicted Daybreaker, she always predicted that the Princess’ love for Twilight Sparkle would always win out in the end. She knew it was thanks to Twilight she was always doomed to win the fight. Though the alicorns did not appear to be finished. “Killing you may be necessary, Immortalis, but I should not find joy in it,” Celestia stated, standing up straight and proud once more. “I will not become you, Empress.” Immortalis grunted, a pained grimace on her muzzle. “So you have chosen. Not that it mattered, I was just curious at what you would choose. Even if you murdered Twilight Sparkle, you were never leaving here alive.” “We’re not out of the fight yet, anything but!” Luna objected, her horn flashing in example. “You are battered and broken, Empress. Your chitin is charred and cracked, and I can sense the exhaustion within you. Twilight herself has taken some considerable damage, so how long do you think your thrall can protect you against the both of us?” “Against the both of you? I can’t say I like those odds,” Immortalis admitted, her voice growing into but a weak rasp. “But I… always prepare… in advance.” And then, all energy seeping out of her, the Empress collapsed where she stood. Time seemed to stop dead. Everything was still, it was if the very universe itself was trying to process what had just transpired. In but a moment the princesses’ task was seemingly completed. The eyes of the two alicorns opened up wide, shock registering on their features. The Empress was completely still, smoke rising up from her lifeless cadaver as Queen Twilight remained completely unmoved. Daybreaker had all but cooked her from the inside out, her internal organs burnt to a mere crisp without hope of recovery. She was well and truly dead. The regalia upon her chest, the one which had caused all that had befallen the ponies and changelings, was equally ravaged. Twisted and melted, its glory had been snuffed out and left to rot. And yet the red glow in Twilight’s eyes remained unchanged. And then she laughed a laugh not her own. “W-what is happening?” Celestia asked in shocked confusion. “It’s simple, Princess,” Twilight Sparkle stated in Immortalis’ voice, sending a sense of dread deep into the deepest pit of Celestia’s soul. “I AM the hive! As long as it exists, I have no need for a simple body, when the swarm IS my body!” They didn’t need any time to think upon her words. Portals opened up all around them, and then the two alicorns were surrounded by all of the remaining Changeling Queens. “You ponies are too weak,” Immortalis noted, this time her voice came from Queen Tempora. “Simple creatures who can only feel love, and never consume it. Had you been strong enough to strike me within the hive while you could, instead of reaching out to your beloved Twilight, you may have defeated me. Daybreaker could have ruled forever more.” “What kind of vile magic is this!?” Luna demanded to know, seething with rage. “One cannot cheat death in such a manner!” “But I have,” Immortalis retorted, now coming from Queen Cocoon. “You think in small terms. Within the hive mind we are all one, and they are all me. The loss of my own form is regrettable, but only a temporary setback. The queens shall be my eyes and voice, and they continue to obey my will. It is why an old enemy of mine chose to use your precious elements over arranging an… accident for me. Death is not an obstacle.” “And yet you are but a ghost in a shell,” Luna rebuked. “What ruler can you be as a disembodied voice?” “Oh, I am far more than that. I am the will of natural order itself,” Immortalis declared. “But… you perhaps make an adequate point. Hm, perhaps I shall insert my mind fully into the next royal to be born from a queen, a fresh start for a fresh era. What do you think, dear Twilight?” Celestia raged at this new development. “You would steal the life of a child!? Twilight’s child!? You are an abomination, Immortalis. Even within the hive mind, you are not completely invincible!” “And yet, it ultimately changes nothing. You may have had the upper hoof against us, but against the full might of the gathered queens? I think not,” Queen Twilight Sparkle pointed out in her own voice, her tone mocking. “Empress, on your word.” Celestia and Luna stood firm, knowing what was about to happen. They were surrounded, exhausted, and had no way of escaping. Their enemy all but indestructible. The moment they charged their horns to teleport they would be struck down. The fight had seemingly been theirs, Immortalis had retained little chance of victory with her powers weakening and the alicorns pressing on. Now, however, the princesses were truly beaten. And then a giant changeling statue almost landed on and crushed several of the Changeling Queens, all of whom barely scrambled to avoid it. Chaos erupted, and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza teleported in right next to her fellow alicorns. “I know, I’m not meant to be here. Scold me later!” she stated quickly, her horn charging again. “Kill them!” Immortalis commanded through her proxy. Twilight and a few other Changeling Queens quickly fired lethal beams of magic at the trio, but by the time they impacted Cadance’s teleport had already activated. The alicorns were gone. Immortalis stared at the spot where they had just been through Cocoon’s eyes, her soul full of fury at this turn of events. Wordlessly, she had the queens turn back towards the hive with a command being sent throughout all of her forces. Regroup, and prepare to strike again while the princesses were weakened. She then departed into the hive mind to oversee the preparations. However, Queen Twilight Sparkle had to momentarily pause in her tracks. She had heard her Empress’ commands and yet, just for a moment, she swore she could feel the presence of another within her mind. And why did that presence… seem comforting? Why did it fill her with a sense of hope? Twilight shook her head in confusion, and then went to dutifully carry out her Empress’ command. The charred corpse of the Empress was left where it lay, but its former occupant was anything but dead. A blue flash heralded three alicorns being violently thrown from the teleportation spell in a flurry of twisted limbs. Cadance had teleported herself and her aunts several times in quick succession to get as far from the hive as possible, landing them near the edges of the forest in a small clearing. The clearing in question was calm and, most importantly, free of any and all changelings. Only a few random examples of the local wildlife inhabited the area, several curious eyes watching the intruders as they untangled themselves. “Gah, not our greatest success,” Luna remarked as she got up and shook the dust and grime off of herself. “We succeeded in killing the Empress, only for it to have been a futile effort. She is a most infuriating opponent.” The other two alicorns also got back into her hooves, Cadance turning to face Luna while the eldest walked meekly over to the treeline in thought. “What even happened in there?” Cadance demanded to know. “All I saw was fire and the flashes of your magic and… Auntie Celestia, what did you do?” Luna turned to look at her sister, who had her back facing them. The Princess of the Night’s eyes narrowed. “My sister lost control of herself, or do you deny it Celestia?” Celestia didn’t answer for a moment, before sighing without turning to look at the others. “No, there is no denying what I almost became… what I did briefly become.” “But what WAS that?” Cadance reiterated. “Daybreaker,” Celestia responded. “Everything I could be, and shouldn’t be. An alicorn who would eliminate all those she considered even the slightest bit a threat, right down to a homeless foal stealing a loaf of bread, and would do so filled with a psychotic glee. A mare who would have cut out the undesirables and turned the world into what more resembles an automatous machine than a civilisation. Controlled and without freedom, all in the name of some perverted form of peace.” Celestia grimaced, but wasn’t finished yet. “A mare who… No, I would have kept those I loved close to the point of being prisoners just to keep them safe, under the grand delusion that they were free of danger while not seeing that I myself was such a danger.” “That… sounds nothing like you,” Cadance stated. “You love the freedom we grant our ponies. The freedom to be who they want, to create grand arts and tear inducing poems. To live a life worth living.” “…Maybe,” Celestia responded quietly. “But right then and there, it all paled in comparison to saving Twilight by any means. And, likewise, keeping her safe by any means.” "So the ends justified the means?" Luna asked. “Even if it meant harming her?” “Why do you think I stopped!?” Celestia snapped, before sagging again. “Daybreaker goes against everything I believe in… that Twilight or any of us believe in. And yet she seems to hold more power than me, able to act while I can only watch helplessly…” Celestia sat in silence for a moment, deafeningly so. But she flinched upon feeling her sister’s wing drape over her comfortingly, and a nuzzle brush against her. “You speak as if you’re two separate ponies sometimes,” Luna noted. “But remember that you are not, and you are not any less powerful. The difference is the heart, and how it dictates the usage of those powers. My sister saves ponies, Daybreaker was to dominate them.” Luna gave a sigh of her own. “When I was Nightmare Moon, it took my defeat to make me realise my folly. To even consider a reconciliation where I once thought there was none to be had. My heart had blackened to nearly the point of no return before Twilight Sparkle. But you… your heart did not descend that far, and you relented the moment the harm you would cause was clear.” “It doesn’t change the fact that, for just a moment, I wanted that automatous world,” Celestia replied. “That I actually considered it to be the just option, despite its horrific nature.” “Then let that knowledge ensure it NEVER happens,” Luna encouraged. “And allow for a better one that Twilight can return to once this is all over.” “She’s right, Auntie Celestia,” Cadance stated in agreement. “What happened back there can be between us, let’s just go home.” “Our niece speaks truly,” Luna announced, withdrawing her wing and looking up at the sky. “No changelings are here, but that may soon change. Let us return to Canterlot with haste to plan our next move.” Celestia looked towards her fellow alicorn princesses, her features mixing relief and a proudness for the both of them. The fire was gone, with it so was Daybreaker. What happened had happened, but it was past. She would still give her being to free Twilight, but she would do it as Princess Celestia. “Very well. Cadance, Luna, let’s go home.”