//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 // Story: Daybreak // by Leafdoggy //------------------------------// “So annoying,” Daybreak grumbled as she snuck through the halls of the castle once again. “She knows where my room is.” After her meeting with Starswirl, Daybreak had called on Angel for help getting back home.  Angel, annoyed at having been called on yet again so late at night, had decided to dump her on the front steps. So, Daybreak again found herself dodging guards as she tried to make it back to her room with the old, shattered element stashed safely under a wing. She’d been doing well so far; Not a single guard had crossed her path, and she now stood before her final obstacle. Slowly, cautiously, she pushed open the huge door leading into the throne room just enough to squeeze through it before quickly shutting it again. The room was dark, too dark to see, and there didn’t even seem to be guards around. It was still, it was silent, and it was calm. By all accounts, she seemed to be home free, but something felt off to her. There was an ominous chill in the air, and the stillness of everything unsettled her. There should have been guards. Why weren’t there guards? She’d hardly taken a single step when, without warning, every light in the room blazed to life at once. For a moment she was blinded, stunned by the sudden onslaught, but slowly her eyes started to adjust. The blurs around her started to come into focus, to turn from streaks of color into vague shapes, and from those into… She swallowed hard. At the far end of the room, sitting in their thrones were her parents, and they did not look happy to see her. Twilight looked dead tired, leaning hard on the arm of her chair, but her eyes were still sharp, and the frustration buried deep in her furrowed brow couldn’t be ignored. Chrysalis, meanwhile, was wide awake, sitting up straight and giving Daybreak the kind of regal, neutral look she often gave visiting nobles who she was less fond of. A shaky, nervous smile crept onto Daybreak’s face. “U-Um…” She swallowed again. “Good mor—” “Enough,” Chrysalis said sharply. Like her expression, her voice didn’t seem to carry any edge of anger or disappointment, just the pure, unyielding force of authority. “Daybreak Nymph, come here.” Daybreak nodded and walked up to the bottom of the steps that led up to the thrones. From there, her mothers towered above her, and their glares seemed all the worse for it. “Daybreak,” Twilight spoke up, “where have you been?” Her voice was quiet, caring, but filled with an undeniable disappointment. “I-I, um…” Daybreak scratched the back of her neck as she thought hard, searching for a way out. “I was just…” “Please, just be honest,” Twilight said. Daybreak’s heart fell as a guilty feeling started to well up in her chest.  She hated that Twilight was able to get to her so easily, but there was no helping it. As much as Daybreak could relish her parents’ frustration, their anger, she couldn’t stand to make them sad. “I was…” Daybreak looked down at the floor, shuffled her hooves, and took a deep breath. “I was at the Tree of Harmony.” Twilight’s expression shifted just a bit, losing a touch of its edge and replacing it with concern. “What? Why?” “I…” Daybreak made an anxious, conflicted noise, unsure of what to do. She shrank in on herself, hunching her shoulders and hiding her face behind her mane. “Are you in trouble?” Chrysalis asked. “N-No!” Daybreak shook her head quickly. “No, I… I fixed it.” “Fixed what?” Twilight asked. “Uh…” At a loss for words, Daybreak decided to just drop the broken element on the floor where they could both see it. Twilight gasped, pulled the stones to herself with her magic and started to inspect them. “What—how—who—” “It doesn’t look very fixed to me,” Chrysalis said. “We made a new one,” Daybreak said. “Starswirl said it should be fine!” “We?” Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “You know, me and Angel and Royal Gala.” “Of course,” Chrysalis said. For the first time, a hint of annoyance growled in her voice. “Did you just find it like this?” Twilight asked, still fixated on the element. “Um…” Daybreak scuffed a hoof on the floor and looked away. “No, I’m the one who broke it.” Twilight stopped her fiddling and looked up. “What?” “I was trying to get it out of the tree, but it was stuck so I had to keep pulling harder, and I pulled too hard and, and—” “It broke?” Twilight was staring at her now with wide eyes. “Um… Yeah.” “It’s an Element of Harmony! It can’t break. I-I—” Twilight took a deep breath and looked to her side. “Chrissy?” Chrysalis nodded. “If they were simple to break, I’d have broken them. Trust me, I tried. A lot.” “I don’t know what to tell you,” Daybreak said. “It just broke.” “And you were just pulling on it?” Twilight asked. “With your magic, I assume?” “Mm-hm.” “Well, that is… Interesting,” Twilight said. “Um…” Daybreak looked between the two of them and frowned. “I’m really sorry.” “I would hope so,” Chrysalis said. “Thank you for telling us,” Twilight said, “and for working so hard to fix your mistake.” “So… I’m not in trouble?” “Hah!” Chrysalis couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, you’re in severe trouble. Just less than if we had discovered all of this on our own.” Twilight gave Chrysalis a look, then turned her attention back to Daybreak. “Seeing as you did eventually tell the truth, and you took the effort to fix things, we won’t punish you for breaking the element or sneaking out tonight.” “We won’t?” Chrysalis asked. “No,” Twilight said, “we won’t. However, you still skipped school, and don’t think I didn’t notice that book in your pillowcase. That, you are in trouble for.” Daybreak frowned. “So, what, am I grounded?” “We’ll discuss the details in the morning,” Twilight said. “For now, you should get some sleep. It’s well past your bedtime, and you—” Twilight was cut off by a loud, deep boom from somewhere far off in the castle. From the direction, it sounded like it was from the kitchen. Without thinking, Daybreak inhaled sharply. “Oh no…” Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. “What did you do?” “Um… Nothing?” “Uh-huh.” Chrysalis stood up, and Twilight followed suit. “Come. Let’s go investigate this ‘nothing.’” Daybreak walked nervously alongside her parents, keenly aware of Twilight’s steely gaze locked to her. She had no idea what she was walking into, and that unknown was quickly building into fear as they made their way towards the kitchen. Chrysalis went in first and flicked on the lights. Twilight followed shortly after, and then beckoned Daybreak inside. The kitchen was an absolute mess. Food was scattered around, cupboards were torn open, some had even had their doors taken clean off of their hinges. The faucet was still running, pouring straight into an empty sink. Muddy water glistened around the edges of the sink, and some still stuck to the sides of the counter where it had cascaded off earlier, but strangely enough, there didn’t seem to be any water on the floor. All the signs seemed to point towards the sink having overflown and dripped onto the tile floor, but the puddle that should have been there was just… Gone. The source of the loud noise that had alerted them was plain to see. At the far end of the kitchen, a fridge had been pushed and toppled over onto its side. The door had fallen open in the calamity, and standing on the door, digging around in the fridge, was… Something. “Daybreak,” Twilight said slowly, not taking her eyes off of the thing in the fridge, “I need to know what you did.” “I didn’t do this!” Daybreak gulped. “I-I mean, I was in here earlier messing around with some sand I got from Mage Meadowbrook, but nothing happened!” “What sand?” Twilight asked. “I left it by the sink.” Twilight glanced at the counter, but nothing was there. Slowly, cautiously, she crept across the room, trying not to alert the thing in the fridge, and glanced down into the sink. There, she spotted the jar and dug it out with her magic. “Was it in this?” “Wh—” Daybreak winced. “I only used a little of it! Where’d it go?” “Looks to me like it’s in our fridge,” Chrysalis said. “What?” Curious, Daybreak snuck a few steps closer to the creature. “Careful, Daybreak,” Chrysalis said. “It could be dangerous.” “I know,” Daybreak said. “Geez, I’m not a baby. I can handle—” Daybreak yelped as she slipped on a wet spot on the floor and crashed to the floor. The yelp and crash finally got the attention of the thing in the fridge. It stopped what it was doing and stuck its head in the air, seemingly sniffing around, before turning and looking towards Daybreak. It was a bizarre creature. In many ways, it seemed shapeless. The muddy brown puddle had pulled together, coagulated into a small, four-legged shape that looked, vaguely, like a cat, although it had no definable features. It had indents that gave the impression of eyes, but there were no actual eyes there. It had a snout, but there were no nostrils. And, when it opened its mouth and bared its wet, dripping fangs, it clearly had no throat. The creature crouched down and arched its back defensively as it let out a high-pitched, gurgling hiss. As it moved, the water that made up its body rippled and waved, and as the lights shone through the murky brown water they revealed the hints of a rainbow, tiny bits of color all throughout its body that were gone as soon as they appeared, making it shimmer like a mirage. Daybreak scrambled to her hooves and took a few steps back. “N-Nice kitty… Please don’t—” The creature sprang forward, lunging at Daybreak. Her parents acted fast. Daybreak vanished in a puff of green magic as Chrysalis teleported her across the room, and as soon as the creature landed a dome of solid magic rose up in a cage around it, trapping it in place. Or, at least, it should have been trapped. The creature spun around in place until it spied Twilight, her horn glowing brightly as she kept the cage up, and sprang at her. It passed straight through the field of magic, ignoring it like it wasn’t even there, and Twilight had to dive out of the way to avoid being bitten. “Mom!” Daybreak panicked at seeing Twilight in danger. She dashed across the room, ignoring Chrysalis yelling for her to stop, and leapt up onto the counter. There, she grabbed the biggest bowl she saw out of the sink and yanked it out. Then she jumped on the creature. There was a hollow clank as the bowl landed around it, Daybreak standing on top of the bowl to hold it down, and then a dull thunk as the creature slammed against the metal in an attempt to break free. “Daybreak!” Breathing hard, Twilight grabbed the bowl with her magic to hold it down and picked Daybreak up in a tight, close hug. “You can’t do that,” she said quietly. “You could’ve been hurt.” “B-But so could you,” Daybreak argued. Twilight leaned back and stroked Daybreak’s mane as she looked into her eyes. “Honey, it’s not your job to protect us. We can handle things like this.” “But I stopped it!” “I know you did,” Twilight said, “and I’m very proud of you, but it was still dangerous. We’ve been alive a lot longer than you. We know what to look out for to stay safe.” “I am safe, though, and you weren’t! You were gonna get hurt! I couldn’t—” “Daybreak.” Twilight put a hoof on Daybreak’s cheek tenderly. “Please. I couldn’t bear to see you hurt.” “I…” Daybreak paused for a moment, then nodded and hugged Twilight. “I’m sorry.” “Don’t be sorry,” Twilight said, squeezing her tight. “Just be safe.” As they talked, Chrysalis walked over to the bowl and took over holding it for Twilight. She looked around the kitchen for a moment, thinking hard, then made a decision. Carefully, she slid a cutting board under the bowl to hold the creature in, then vanished in a burst of light. A minute later, she reappeared, although this time without the bowl. Instead, she was carrying with her a large, clear aquarium tank that she’d trapped the creature in. She set it on the counter and started cleaning up the kitchen as Twilight finished comforting Daybreak. Eventually, Daybreak pushed out of Twilight’s grasp, although not without Twilight getting one last kiss on her forehead. Then Daybreak wiped her eyes, took a breath, and wandered over to where the creature was trapped. It stared back at her as she looked into the tank. The creature had calmed down quite a bit, and now, instead of hissing, it regarded her curiously. As they studied each other, Daybreak thought about it, wondering what it was, and where it had come from. After all, nothing had been going on when she left the kitchen. She didn’t see how all the carnage could have started. Eventually, Daybreak decided to speak up. “So, what’re you gonna do with it?” Twilight took a break from cleaning and walked over to stand beside Daybreak. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I suppose it depends on if it stays calm.” “What do you mean?” “Well,” Twilight said, “Mage Meadowbrook made you responsible for that sand, right? It’ll take a bit to be sure it’s not going to become hostile again, but if it’s not, then… You’re still responsible.” “Wait, do you mean…” Twilight grinned down at Daybreak. “Better start thinking of names.” “She can think while she cleans,” Chrysalis said from across the room. “C’mon. I’m not doing all of this myself.” And so they all got to work, determined to finish the job as quickly as possible so they could finally sleep. As they toiled away, deep below them, in the bowels of the castle, a pipe ruptured.