//------------------------------// // Escape the flames // Story: The wrath of Daybreaker // by Hyper44 //------------------------------//    “Celestia wait! You are not well,” Luna pleaded as she backed away from Daybreaker who was slowly moving forward like a cat stalking its prey.   “Not well,” Daybreaker laughed, “Oh Luna, just because I’m hot it does not mean that I have a fever.”    “No, I did this to you,” Luna insisted.   “How?! What could you possibly do?” Daybreaker laughed.   “I made a wish that would change our fates. I don’t know what happened but somehow it took all the rage and frustration that I had and put it in you. It was because I wanted you to know how I felt but I never should have done it this. Please, you are not yourself. The old Celestia would never do anything like this. Let me help you.”   “Old Celestia,” Daybreaker said. She looked around as if searching for somepony. “Old Celestia? Where are you? Oh yes, she is not here anymore. She is nowhere.” She sneered at Luna. “There is no more Old Celestia and she never will be again!” Daybreaker reared on her hind hooves and gathered magic in her horn.    Luna gasped and dodged behind the throne room door. The blast smashed the door clean off its hinges sending it hurtling down the hallway with Luna skidding behind it. With a subtle flash flicker of light from her horn Luna became transparent and vanished through the floor and into the room blow. The door tipped over and fell flat with a heavy thud. Celestia snarled and raised up her forehooves as a golden light swelled around them. She slammed them down with such impact that cracks shot across the floor in all directions. Luna raced down the lower hallway as Celestia smashed through the ceiling with the second blow. Golden shod hooves pounded heavily as Daybreaker gained on her sister. Nearing a set of large double doors Luna suddenly vanished. Daybreaker didn’t even pause. She smashed right through the doors. Dust flew as she skidded to a stop on the garden path. Slowly Daybreaker scanned the trees and flowers that were already wilting under the heat of her new sun. Only the statues seemed untouched as they stood as regal or as imposing as ever. Though somehow the laughter on Discord’s face somehow seemed more gleeful.    Daybreaker slowly stalked down the path with her eyes darting back and forth. She bared her fangs and called out in a sing-song voice, “The itsy bisty pony climbed up the castle wall, down came rain and made the pony fall. Out came the sun above that little wisp, it brought the heat and burned her to a crisp!”   Slowly she made her way around the garden never losing her grin. Fangs gleamed in the hot sunlight and golden eyes never ceased to move. Suddenly from nowhere a ball of magic came hurtling at her. Daybreaker spun to face it forming a shield in front of herself but the mass expanded and in a split second it had encased her in a bubble. Luna cautiously walked out of a wilting hedge.   “Sister let me help you. This is not how things are supposed to be,” Luan said. “I asked a vengeful wish dragon to grant my request and it turned you into this. You are not the real you anymore. If you let me, I can help you and put an end to this thing you've become. Don't you understand? You are a Mare of Darkness, you are no longer the real you.”   Daybreaker was silent in thought for a moment. She stared at her sister’s imploring face with unreadable eyes for a tense moment that seemed to continue forever. Then she finally replied, “Well, then I suppose that I should thank him… then destroy him and all of his kind! I can’t risk any creature making a wish to be as powerful as me, can I?”    “Celestia!” Luna gasped.    “I AM DAYBREAKER!” Her sister yelled as flames erupted from her horn. “And you really shouldn't be outside unless you can take the heat!” The sun above them grew even brighter as beams shot directly out of it towards Luna. Luna scrambled back covering herself with a magic shield as the trees around her erupted into flames. Even her cooling spell faltered under the staggering heat. She turned tail and raced for the shelter of the castle.    Daybreaker laughed as she watched her sister flee and the garden burning all around her. The magic dome entrapping her cracked and shattered like glass. Daybreaker spread her wings and flew through the flames after her sister. As she neared the castle she screamed after Luna, “I made a mistake simply trying to take your princesshood, I should have destroyed you! This is a mistake that I intend to correct!”   She raced into the castle with her feet setting fire to the carpet and she ran. The flames on her mane and tail burned as fiercely as her anger. Paintings and tapestries that she passed smoldered and began burn. Everywhere she went crackling from both the fires and her own flames could be heard. Hallways and rooms began to fill with chocking smoke. Daybreaker seemed completely unbothered as she stormed through rooms and halls. Suddenly wheezing fit of coughing echoed through the castle. With a twist of her head Daybreaker brought wind surging through the hall blowing smoke out of her way. Huddled in a small closet were two servants who were struggling to stop their coughing as tears streamed from irritated eyes. Despite the stinging from the smoke they looked at Daybreaker with wide, terrified gazes. Daybreaker just sneered and brought a surging pulse of power to the tip of her horn.   “NO!” Luna lunged out of a cloud of smoke and slammed into her sister. The blast fired from Daybraker’s horn and smashed into the castle wall. Stone shattered leaving a gaping hole in the frame. The two servants broke free from their frozen terror and fled in crazed panic down the hall. At the same time Daybreaker kicked Luan in the stomach sending her sister stumbling back wheezing.    “Oh, Luna you are so cruel and selfish,” Celestia said before releasing another blast from her horn. Still gasping Luan dove out of the way just in time and scrambled away. “You know that they are going to die anyway and you took away the gift of a quick death. Now they will have to suffer!” Daybreaker yelled charging after her sister with fangs bared in a grin.    Luna raced into lower levels to escape the smoke. Reaching the basement levels, she lit up her horn sending a magical wave blowing out every candle sconce. She heard the cracking of energy behind her and dove under the blast feeling the heat singe her coat as it passed over. Springing up Luna sent the light on her horn flying down the dark hallways with a spell creating the sound of clattering of hooves on the stone. Luna cringed as the light of Daybreaker's flames passed over her but her sister continued to race down the hall after the light.   The moment it was clear Luan raced down a separate turn using only the subtlest of lights to guide her. She soon reached doorway with a pointed arch and pushed it open. It led into a room what was little more than a large circular stone hole like a giant well with a spiral staircase descending into darkness. Before she could put a hoof on the first step a wave of magic hit her and sent her tumbling down the stairs. Struggling to right herself Luna glimpsed her sister in the doorway illuminated by her flaming mane and tail.   “Do you think that I do not remember that fake out!” Daybreaker laughed. Luna just managed to stop her tumbling decent when the room was filled with blinding light that was made all the worse after so much time in the dark. Unable to see Luna could only hear the stairwell crumbling around her and struggle to fly before all of her senses went completely dark.