//------------------------------// // The Greatest Magician in All Equestria // Story: Daybreaker // by Lets Do This //------------------------------// Daybreaker awoke, and then arose languorously from her bed, sighing happily. No need to look at the clock to tell what time it was any more. The Queen of All Equestria had arisen, so it was officially a new Day. And that was all that should matter to any pony in her realm! She summoned her armor and crown, and then, accompanied by her nervous guards, strode haughtily down to the Throne Room... her Throne Room, no one else's. She frowned at the empty chair to the left of hers on the dais. She would really need to do something about that, it spoiled the whole effect. She needed a single throne, dead center, of solid gold, with multiple tiers in case she had guests or consorts to entertain. And fountains, she wanted fountains... flame fountains. Yes, that would do! She'd have plans drawn up, and then put the hard-working construction crews to work reshaping things the way she wanted them. She settled herself on her throne, and nodded for the Chief Steward to open the Court for the day. Silence fell in the Throne Room. Daybreaker looked around. "Well?" she asked, a little testily. "Doesn't anyone have business to put before us?" The waiting petitioners all looked at each other, nervously. Go ahead! No, after you, I insist! their looks said. "Hmph!" Daybreaker frowned. "Don't keep us waiting! You know we don't handle boredom well!" In the silence that followed, the sound of the main doors of the Throne Room being blown off their hinges was deafening. <<>> When the smoke cleared, a single pony stood framed in the ruined doorway. A pony dressed in a star-spangled wizard's hat and cape. Who smiled... with absolute confidence. "Fear not, Queen Celestia!" she called, easily audible across the length of the Throne Room. "Your morning's entertainment has arrived! Behold! And prepare to be dazzled! By the one! The only! THE GRRREAT AND POWERFUL TRRRIXIE!!! Coming smoothly out of her dramatic pose, she dropped to her hooves and trotted up the middle of the hall, not bothering with the red carpet to the left or the right. She simply walked straight into the middle crowd of waiting ponies... who found themselves gently lifted into the air and swept aside to the left and right, clearing a broad path along which she trotted with perfect aplomb. "One performance! Today only!" she said as she drew closer. "Saw your calling-card up there in the sky, and just had to pay a call on a fellow Great and Powerful pony!" So focused was everyone on Trixie's entrance, none of them noticed the three other cloaked figures who snuck into the room by side entrances, and positioned themselves strategically about the hall. Even Daybreaker herself was staring down at Trixie. She appeared moderately amused. "Thou claims to be our equal?" she sneered. "Thou had best be ready to prove it!" "Oh, but I am, your Highness!" Trixie reared and lofted her forehooves. "Behold, the Greatest Magician in All Equestria! I have wonders! Thrills! Astonishments galore! Powers undreamt of by mortal pony... and perhaps, dare I say it, even by your good self? Observe!" She gestured with a hoof. A bolt of lightning from nowhere struck the carpet where she stood, leaving nothing but a star-shaped burnt mark. "And that's just for starters!" Trixie said, from her comfortable seat on Luna's throne. "Plenty more where that came from!" Getting up from the throne, she trotted down the stairs to stand before Daybreaker again, and bowed dramatically. "Thou hast our attention," Daybreaker said, a sharp edge in her tone. "Make good use of it!" "I intend to, your Highness! I heard your Highness has an opening for a court magician, and I'm perfect for the job!" "Have a care!" Daybreaker warned with a smirk. "The last one ended up as a lawn ornament!" "Not this pony, your Highness! By the end of this performance I'll have you begging for more. Regardez!" Whipping off her hat, she plunged a hoof into it. She felt around dramatically, seemed to be struggling with something... And then she hauled out Daybreaker's crown. "Oops!" she called out, in feigned surprise. "How'd that get in there?" The crowds around her burst into nervous laughter. Which died away immediately at the look on Daybreaker's face as she felt her mane with a hoof. Her gaze fell back to Trixie, cold and malevolent. "Thou thinkst to jest with us?" she snarled. Trixie was unrepentant. "Do I look like the jesting type, Highness?" Slapping the hat back on her head, she waved her hoof. And in a flash, Daybreaker's crown was back in place. But the Queen of All Equestria was not amused. "See how thou manages with this trick!" Daybreaker's eyes gleamed. And Trixie was encased by a glowing bubble of energy. She looked around at it, completely at ease. And then slow-clapped with her forehooves. "Very nice, your Highness! Did it come as a prize in the box? Oh, of course, it means nothing at all to me..." She pointed with a forehoof. A vase of flowers across the room exploded. She gestured in the other direction. A guard was turned upside down and hung in the air by his hooves. Left and right, she jabbed her hooves, making objects fall, or explode, or turn topsy-turvey, while she giggled with joy at the unending mayhem she was causing. And all the while Daybreaker's eyes glared ever more fiercely, pouring layer on layer of force into the gleaming sphere -- which appeared to have no ability at all to block Trixie's magic. Trixie finally ceased waving her hooves. The guard and other levitating objects were released and fell to the floor. "And just so you know, Highness," Trixie said, with icy calm. "You're not the only one who can play with forces of nature!" She dramatically whipped off her hat, dug her hoof into it... ... and pulled out Night itself, spangled with the stars of the heavens. She whipped it about her like a cloak, and it filled the interior of the glowing sphere with utter, inky, concealing blackness. Trixie's voice suddenly boomed from the air of the Throne Room, seemingly coming from every direction at once: CAN YOU SEE ME NOW, HIGHNESS? AM I HERE... OR HERE... OR MAYBE HERE? Her voice seemingly leapt around the room, even once coming from directly behind Daybreaker's throne. Snarling, Daybreaker dismissed the sphere of energy, leaving Trixie's bubble of Night behind. Which evaporated, revealing Trixie lying on the carpet, idly reading a small book. Startled, she looked around. "Oh, right! Me again!" Stuffing the book back into her hat, she jumped to her hooves, slapped the hat back on... ... just as Daybreaker opened her mouth and unleashed a torrent of hot flame, straight at Trixie. The glare of it striking its target was overwhelming, causing nearby ponies to crowd away anxiously. And then Trixie leaned out around the blazing glow, wearing a pair of industrial-grade sunglasses. "Whenever you get tired, Highness," she said cheekily, "just let me know!" Astonished, Daybreaker ceased her attack, and stared at Trixie, an evaluating look in her eyes. Trixie patted out a couple small flames on her cloak, then turned back to the Queen. "Now, let's talk seriously, Highness! You want to rule the country, all by your lonesome. Fine, I get it! Trixie's a one-pony show too. But you're gonna need some powerful backup. And who better than a pony who has everything you've got, and more... and doesn't need anything else!" She idly huffed on a hoof, then polished it on her cloak. "I'm already the Greatest Magician in All Equestria! What more do I need?" Daybreaker leapt up from her throne. "You'll be needing pallbearers when I'm done with you!" she raged. Trixie leaned forward. A bead of sweat ran down her cheek as she unflinchingly looked Daybreaker square in the eyes. "Give it your best shot, cupcake!" Daybreaker shrieked, and leapt into the air, blazing with fire, setting the hangings about the throne ablaze. "Oh yeah? Two can play at that game! Alley-oop!" Trixie cried, hopping up from the carpet herself. And then she was swept up by a cloud of star-spangled Night, which concealed her from view. Daybreaker fired blast after blast of Sun-bright magic through the cloud. Which, completely unharmed, snickered loudly at her. GONNA TAKE MORE THAN THAT, HIGHNESS! Daybreaker's fury was unbounded -- she flung wide her wings, and exploded into the brilliance of the Sun itself. In the confines of the Throne room, the air swiftly became hot as an oven... ... except for the part behind the dark cloud, which remainined safely cool and comfortable for the assembled ponies looking on, frozen in terror. And the dark cloud itself contracted into a perfect sphere, becoming a Black Star, the ultimate form of Night, from which even Light itself could not hope to escape. YIELD! Daybreaker's voice boomed. NOT HAPPENING! Trixie's voice thrummed in reply. YOU CANNOT STAND AGAINST ME! I'VE ALREADY DONE WAY BETTER, HIGHNESS! Trixie's voice replied. I'VE SHOWN YOU THE ONE WEAKNESS POWER ALWAYS HAS -- IT HAS LIMITS! Daybreaker attacked, the full, blazing fury of the Sun lancing out at the Black Star, which stolidly rebuffed it, unbroken and unmoved... and not striking back. And nothing else could have been more infuriating to the Queen of All Equestria. She wanted victory, she wanted dominance, she wanted fear and terror, absolute acknowledgement of her might. And she got nothing, nothing but stolid, unrelenting indifference! The Sun screamed in rage, in agony... and fear of defeat. "Aaaand... for my next trick," Trixie said, in an almost conversational tone of voice, "Trrrixie will need some help from her esteemed assistant. Come on down, Madame Amore! You're on!" Twilight, from her position on a high balcony near the front of the hall, looked across to Starlight, and then to Luna, positioned on similar balconies to either side of the hall. They both nodded, their faces contorted with the combined effort of holding back the living inferno of the Sun Princess. And then Twilight teleported herself into the airspace right next to the Black Star. It was like hurling herself into an active volcano. She winced at the raging heat that threatened to set her cloak alight. She kept her wings tight at her sides, hovering in her own magic, afraid that the power crackling through the air around her might simply set her pinions alight if she tried to use her wings. "Any time, Madame Amore! Any time!" Trixie's voice called, sounding just a little worried. "Can't keep the audience waiting for your special trick!" But Twilight wasn't sure what to do. With Celestia in her Sun form, there was no way she could get anywhere near that blazing inferno without incinerating herself... ... and then she remembered. Duh! Princess! Why do I keep forgetting! For a brief moment she wondered if her entire life had been leading up to this: freeing Luna from Nightmare Moon, releasing Stygian from the Pony of Shadows, surviving her own experience as Friendmaker... and even the discovery of her unearthly ability to catch fire and not be consumed by it. It all came down to this. And now she would do the same again, to rescue her beloved mentor... ...or die in the attempt, as Trixie would say. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she held it in, flung off her cloak... ... and exploded in flame herself. "Twilight!" She barely heard Starlight call out behind her. And then she dove headfirst into the Sun. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - When her overwhelmed eyes finally adjusted, she found herself standing in a featureless white space, with the suggestion of a floor to stand on and air to breathe, but nothing else. The Vault, she thought to herself. Where Celestia taught me my very first lessons in Magic. And she was beginning to realize that it was much more than that... it was Celestia herself. She created a safe space around me, for me to unleash my Magic in, Twilight thought. She made herself into a playroom for my very first clumsy attempts at magic... ... and now's my chance to pay her back for that. There was a pony lying a short distance away. A young white-coated pony with a pink cotton-candy mane. She was huddled into herself, sobbing quietly. Quickly, Twilight cast an illusion spell, made herself appear to be a plain-looking cream-coated unicorn. Then she advanced slowly towards the huddled pony. "Princess?" Twilight called out cautiously. Celestia looked up, startled. "Who are you?" Twilight gritted her teeth. "I'm... a friend. A good friend! And that's all that matters right now. I'm here to help you, if you'll let me." Celestia shook her head, lowering her eyes. "It's too late! I've gone too far. I didn't mean for it to get out of hand like this. I was just so tired of being seen as weak and powerless. Having to hold it all in, not show anyone what I could really do. Always serving some other pony's needs, and never my own. Never being able to have things the way I wanted them. And the more attuned I became to the Sun's power, the more I wanted to let it out..." Her eyes suddenly blazed, her voice roared. "... TO UNLEASH IT!" Twilight nodded, keeping her own voice steady. "I know... I saw... and I understand completely. I felt for you, I really did! And we can find a way to make it all work. You can be the kind of Princess you want to be. You can stand up for yourself, and be respected for your strength and restraint. I know that you can! I know it for a fact!" Because I've seen it, she whispered to herself, desperately wanting but not daring to speak the whole truth. Celestia shook her head again. "They'll never accept me now. My subjects, my Sister, and poor Star Swirl -- why did I do that to him? And the Dragons and the Griffons, it will be war or worse now! It's all too late! I cannot go back to what was! I've destroyed it, destroyed it all!" Twilight trotted close, looked Celestia directly in the eyes. "Highness, I'm here to tell you that it's not too late! It's never too late. You have friends who love you, subjects who need you, and you can work out any disagreements given time. I know you can! You can go back. All you have to do... is want it, more than anything else in the world! And then ask for it!" Celestia nodded, tears on her cheeks. "I do want it! More than anything!" Twilight held out a hoof. Celestia looked at it. For a moment she drew back, her eyes glowing fiercely, rejectingly. And then the glow in her eyes faded, replaced by a familiar depth and clarity. And her hoof touched Twilight's. She stood up, restored to herself, calm and self-assured. Amazed, she took a deep, steadying breath. "Where did you learn how to do that?" she finally said. "You must have had a brilliant teacher!" "You'd... be surprised, your Highness!" Twilight said. She glanced around. "But I think we should discuss this later." Before I open my big mouth and blow the whole thing! Celestia nodded. "You're absolutely right." She gazed around at the featureless void, as if seeing beyond it to the battle raging outside. "Let's end this!" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - In the Throne Room, Luna and Starlight eyed each other worriedly, from their hiding places on balconies to either side of the hall. Luna was coming to the end of even her vast reserves of magic, and Starlight was nearly out herself. In a minute or less they were going to have to yield -- and Daybreaker wasn't even close to being tapped out. She's going to mop the floor with us, Starlight thought helplessly. She concentrated on remote-projecting her last reserves to Luna, hoping against hope that the Princess of the Night could use it to stand a few moments longer. "Come on, Starlight!" Trixie whispered, from her seat beside her. Trixie had her hat in her hooves and was having to visibly restrain herself from gnawing on its brim. "Don't give up! You can do it! I know you can! And if you do give up, we're all toast! I hope you're remembering that!" "Not... helping... Trixie..." Starlight ground out between clenched teeth. And then she felt Trixie's hoof on her shoulder, felt the magician lean close and touch her horn to Starlight's, contributing what little power she had into an emotion spell, bolstering Starlight's confidence. "A little of the ol' Trixie bravado," she whispered. "Because you know you need it, besty!" "Thanks!" Starlight said, even as she felt her horn sputter, her magic reserves utterly drained. She looked up, saw the black sphere flicker, and then dissipate, like the illusion spell it always was. Revealed beyond it was the blinding inferno of Daybreaker, who would sweep forward and consume them all. Then a voice boomed in the hall: WHAT? NO! YOU CANNOT REJECT ME! I AM EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO BE! She was answered by another, similar voice. A stronger, more determined voice: NO! NO, YOU ARE NOT! I... I AM... I AM PRINCESS CELESTIA! There was an endless, anguished scream. Starlight tensed, and shut her eyes, waiting for death. "Oh... my... gosh!" she heard Trixie say. And then she was being crushed in an excited hug. "She did it! She did it!" Trixie shouted. "Twilight did it! She talked her down!" Starlight gave her an exhausted look. "And the rest of us had nothing to do with it!" she muttered, annoyed. "Come on, Starlight! I had total confidence in you!" "You did, huh?" "Of course! I wasn't sure about Twilight, though! I mean what if she freaked out and went all to pieces right at the end? Where would we be? But she pulled it off! Look!" She pointed with a hoof. On the charred carpet before the dais, a weakened, shame-faced Celestia was rising to her hooves. She looked around at the assembled crowd of ponies, then cleared her throat for attention. Her voice caught once, but then she tried again, and the Royal Voice rang out in the chamber. MY LOYAL SUBJECTS! QUEEN CELESTIA... IS DEAD! LONG LIVE PRINCESS CELESTIA AND PRINCESS LUNA, THE ROYAL SISTERS OF EQUESTRIA! There was a stunned pause. And then the guards took it up: "Long live Celestia and Luna!" The crowd of clerks, nobles, and petitioners echoed it. The cry went up once, twice, three times. And then broke into a rousing cheer as they crowded forward in relief around their beloved Princess. She was swiftly joined by Princess Luna, who flapped down from her balcony, shoved her way through the crowd, and relievedly shared a hug with her sister. For a while it was total bedlam. But it was the nice kind of bedlam, so no one tried to stop it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - In the days that followed, once Celestia had carefully re-started the cycle of the Day and Night with Luna's help, and the immediate damage had been repaired to the main audience chamber, and allowing time for the shock of the event to wear off, Celestia found to her surprise that her subjects were only too willing to welcome her back. Apparently the general feeling was that "Queen Celestia" had merely been a masterful demonstration of the Princess's true strength, and an object lesson in what could happen, if they did not take her position as co-ruler of Equestria seriously. Even when she released Star Swirl from his stone prison, and had a profuse apology all prepared, he merely complimented her on her wise decision and her advancement in skill and strength, and appeared quite ready to put the whole thing behind them. "I never once lost faith in you, Highness. Even trapped in my prison I knew you would eventually come to your senses! And my apologies for not taking your opinions as seriously as I should have. Seems I'm a better teacher than a listener. But I suppose that will always be the case, I'm afraid!" Celestia also found that the damage to Equestria itself was less than she had feared. The Dragons, far from being angered by her show of force, were impressed by her display of strength and ferocity, and were finally ready to acknowledge the ponies of Equestria as a power to be reckoned with. The Griffons apparently felt similarly, once a few suitable trade agreements had been struck to appease their desire for results to show the flocks back home. Rather than having damaged her realm beyond repair, she found herself the arbiter of new alliances that would only help to strengthen and secure it. She wanted more than anything else to properly thank the three strange ponies who had appeared out of nowhere to help them all. But they were already gone. In the shock of her recovery from her... excesses... as Queen Celestia, she found she had lost even the name of the show-pony who had faced her down. Luna, for her part, would say nothing about the three mysterious visitors other than to compliment them on their skill, endurance, and experience with magic. Even the show-pony who led them, whom Luna merely described as "the greatest and most powerful fraud we have ever met!" And Celestia especially wanted to say goodbye to that cream-colored pony that had appeared at the end, in the depths of her self-imposed prison, drawing her out of herself with nothing more than friendship and an offered hoof. She hoped against hope that she might meet that pony again, someday. She'd been so kind, so caring, so selfless... Celestia hoped that she might one day live up to an example like that. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "So! Not a bad day's work, besty!" Trixie said, smirking. "We battled Daybreaker to a standstill and won! We saved Equestria... yet again! And I just put on the performance... of... a... lifetime!" She pounded the table, then punched the air proudly. "Yes! Trixie the Great and Powerful, For The Win!" "I'm proud of you, Trix," Starlight said. "Even if Luna and I did pull most of the strings, you put on one heck of a good show!" Trixie smirked, and nudged her shoulder. "Couldn't have done it without you, my Great and Powerful assistant!" They were all sitting at the map-table in Twilight's castle, celebrating with a late breakfast of pancakes and hay-fries. They were all there... Trixie, Starlight, Twilight... and even Princess Luna, whom Twilight had invited to join them as a first step toward the less-than-pleasant task of making a full report on the experience to the Princesses of her own time. Luna simply regarded Trixie with a raised eyebrow. "It was remarkably well-handled," she said to Twilight. "And we were most grateful for your help. As was I, for your forbearance in not telling me what lay ahead!" "I wanted to warn you, your Highness. I really did! I'm just not certain what it would have done. Even now, I'm not sure we might not have screwed something up by interfering back there." "Twilight, you are many things, yet when it comes to magic... you are astonishingly brilliant. Ahem. Almost up to our standards!" she added hastily. "Yet you still have a lot to learn about the practical effects of spells. Your time-lens spell was operating perfectly the whole time, even at the end when you thought you'd modified the safeguards, allowing yourselves to be seen and to act... but it really wasn't necessary. You were always able to interfere with the past, precisely because the past needed to be interfered with, in order to become the future you came from!" "So... we actually couldn't prevent ourselves from changing the past..." Starlight summed up. "Because the changed past actually was our own timeline, all along?" She facehoofed. "And now my head hurts!" Luna nodded, with a rueful smile. "There is no such thing as inalterable destiny. We simply exchange one set of mistakes and ill-informed guesses for another." Twilight bit her lip. There was something else she needed to ask. And Luna waited patiently, poker-faced, for her to ask it. "Luna, you knew about all of us, back then. How is it you didn't recognize us, when you met us again here in the present?" "Twilight!" she shook her head. "We are the Princess of the Night, the Walker of Dreams... which means, like young Trixie here, we know how to keep secrets. Oh, do we ever! And one thing you must learn, as a walker of the dream realm, one thing it is absolutely critical to learn for the sake of your own sanity, is when it is proper to remember and to hold a memory tight in your mind... and when it is proper, nay vital, to let one go. To put a thing behind you so completely and thoroughly that it never troubles you again. To forget, and never look back!" "But you can't just choose to forget things," Starlight objected. "I've tried, believe me. Doesn't work!" "True," Luna retorted. "But one of the branches of illusion magic concerns memory. And there is a spell one can apply to cause oneself to forget a thing so utterly, it is as if it never happened. But that is not a spell to be used lightly, believe me! Once a memory is lost in that way, it is gone, and no force of any kind could ever summon it back. And a part of yourself is lost with it!" She paused, looking a little sad. "I did at least permit myself to recall that we were helped by ponies who traveled in time," she said. "However, it has been so many centuries since then that I did not connect that with the three of you, not until you invited me here to make your report." She looked at Twilight, with a particular arch of her eyebrow. That's all I'm saying, her look said, and it's all you should expect to get out of me! "But Princess," Twilight asked, "when you were teaching me about Shadow Magic, you never mentioned an illusion spell concerning memory!" Luna looked surprised at that. "Did we forget to teach thee the memory spell?" She asked innocently, with a playfully devious smirk. "Hmm... wonder why we did that..." The End My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, its characters and indicia are the property of Hasbro. No infringement is intended. This story is a work of fan fiction, written by fans for fans of the series.