The dark night sky was blocked out by yet darker clouds that rumbled and roiled and threatened their wrath. They’d been drenching the city for hours, and showed no signs of stopping. Any unpaved streets had long since been reduced to shining streaks of mud, and much of the rest of the city was in danger of becoming a maze of raging rivers driven by the torrent.
When the first flash of lightning came, it brought with it an ominous shadow that loomed over the city.
Crouched low, wings outstretched, Daybreak crawled along the rooftops of Canterlot in search of her next target. There were so many to choose from, such a rich buffet of fear and anger. Should she go after the righteous fury of a pony left standing alone in the rain? Or, perhaps, the jealous rage of one not given what they felt they’d earned? Maybe the fear of the young pony lost in the labyrinth of alleyways hidden just behind the streets?
The night was young, she told herself. She didn’t have to choose just one.
She started with the easy target. Lost, alone, stranded in the darkness, she could smell such a rich mixture of terror flowing from the pony in the alleys. Surely, such an enticing aroma must bring with it a taste like no other.
And it did.
As she drained the pony, the different currents of fear swirled together in a raging whirlpool of emotion that funneled every last bit of energy straight into her, faster and faster, and she made it hers. In a matter of seconds, the pony lost nearly everything they had.
Daybreak stopped short of knocking them unconscious, though. If she was going to be a bad guy, if she was going to get her parents’ attention, she had to do it right. The pony served her better as a quivering mess than as an unconscious victim.
From there, she followed her nose until it brought her to the edge of a building overlooking the bustling world of downtown Canterlot. The streets were filled with emotion just ripe for the taking. She made short work of a stallion who’d just lost his job. She devoured the angry sobs of a crying mare. She drank down the scorn of an underseen busker, and when the small crowd gathered around tried to flee, she fed on their terror, too.
It never seemed to end. There was always another pony, always more emotion for her to steal, and steal it she did. She’d made up her mind. She was willing to bring her reign of terror down on anypony so unlucky as to stumble across her path. Whatever she had to do for—
As if on cue, there was a woosh of air and a light thump as someone landed on the rooftop behind Daybreak. She turned around to greet her new guest.
There she was. Princess Twilight, in all of her glory. Head held high. Crown shining in the rain. The hero of Canterlot, looking down on Daybreak as she so often did.
“Enough,” Twilight said sternly. “This ends now.”
“You wish,” Daybreak spat back. “As long as you keep coming for me, I’ll keep coming for them.”
“This isn’t a game,” Twilight said.
“I’m not playing around.”
“So be it.” Twilight reared back and lit up her horn. It grew brighter and brighter at an astounding pace, outmatching anything Daybreak had ever seen from her mother in a matter of seconds.
Then she whipped her head down, aimed her horn at Daybreak, and fired all that magic in a single, lightning-speed bolt.
Daybreak barely reacted in time. She lit up her horn just in time to raise up a shield that deflected the bolt into the air, but even with the shield, the force was nearly enough to knock her backward off the rooftop.
Her eyes went wide. “W-Wait,” Daybreak stuttered, “what are you doing?”
“I’m stopping you,” Twilight replied as she loosed another bolt of light. Daybreak jumped out of the way of the attack, and it exploded against the rooftop, reducing an entire corner of the building to rubble.
Panting, her heart racing with fear, Daybreak dashed across the rooftop to put as much distance between herself and Twilight as she could. “But I’m—”
“You’re a villain,” Twilight said. With a single flap of her wings, she rocketed towards Daybreak and soared just barely over her head. Then, she slammed back down, hardly a foot away. “You’re something evil that needs to be taken out.”
She took a shaky step back. “But it’s me! It’s Daybreak! D-Don’t you care?”
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “How dare you. My daughter is gone.” She lit up her horn again. “Tartarus is too good for you.”
“What? No!” Daybreak tried to backpedal faster, but her body didn’t seem to let her. “Don’t you recognize me? How could you—”
She froze. One of her hooves landed in a puddle, and when she looked down, it wasn’t Daybreak who looked back up out of her reflection. It was a strange, yellow pegasus with a white mane who she’d never seen before.
“No, wait, I’m just in disguise!” Daybreak shook her head and tried to turn back into herself, but when she looked down at her reflection, she just saw another stranger. A purple changeling, this time.
“You don’t even know what she looks like,” Twilight growled. “I’m ending this.”
“Wait, wait, no!” Panicking, Daybreak tried again and again, but she couldn’t seem to turn back into herself. She got ponies and changelings of all shapes and sizes, but her own face eluded her.
Twilight was done waiting. She crouched down and charged up her magic again, now easily twice the strength of the first, and with an angry shout, she fired it at Daybreak.
It was too late to run away. Daybreak shut her eyes and braced herself.
And she waited.
And waited.
Eventually, she got the courage to slowly pry her eyes open again. Then she stumbled back, terrified as she was met with a massive bolt of energy frozen inches from her face. She tripped and fell onto her side, straight into a puddle, but didn’t bother to get back up. She was too focused on the unmoving visage of her mother, scowling just a few steps away.
“Well, this is a strange one,” a voice said nearby. Daybreak turned to see Royal Gala, sitting on the edge of the building with her back turned to the frozen chaos.
“Wh—” Daybreak looked back and forth between her friend and her mother. “What? What’s going on?”
“Nightmare,” Royal Gala said bluntly. “Luna figured I could tackle this one on my own, considering it’s you and all.”
“I’m… I’m asleep?” Daybreak clutched her chest and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, although it didn’t work much.
“Well, I sure hope so,” Royal Gala said. “Otherwise, we got bigger problems than you havin a nightmare.”
“But…” Daybreak pushed herself up out of the puddle and shook the water off. “I don’t understand. Why would I dream about my mom attacking me?”
“How the heck should I know? Last I saw, you were just freaked out about the moon thing. I think. Honestly, it’s a little fuzzy.”
“Oh, yeah…” Daybreak walked over and sat next to Royal Gala. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Royal Gala said. “Luna said my horn my be on the fritz for a couple of days, but I haven’t noticed anything so far.”
“That’s good.”
“So, you wanna tell me what the deal is here? I only really saw the end.”
“Um… Well, I kinda ran away from home,” Daybreak said. She rubbed her leg awkwardly as she spoke. “And, I guess… I guess maybe I’m worried cuz of that?”
“You ran away?” Royal Gala looked at Daybreak and Raised an eyebrow. “You need a place to stay or anything? I could fix up Applebloom’s old clubhouse for ya. She’s got a bunch of camping stuff stashed away up there.”
“No, I’m okay,” Daybreak said.
“Aight.” Royal Gala shrugged. “Well, what’s up? You must’ve run away for a reason.”
“I’m just… Mad,” Daybreak grumbled. “I’m sick of them caring more about ‘saving Equestria’ than they do about me. I hate that I might come home one day and find out they flew into the moon and died cuz they don’t care if I get left all alone!”
“So you ran away?”
“Well, if I’m gonna be alone, I might as well get it over with, right?” Daybreak huffed. “It’s not like they care.”
“That still doesn’t seem like enough for your mom to try to kill you.”
“Well, okay, I was kind of dreaming about being a bad guy.” Daybreak frowned. “I mean, at least then they’d pay attention to me.”
“Well, she definitely paid attention to you,” Royal Gala said.
“So, what’s it mean? Why’d I have a nightmare like this?”
Royal Gala shrugged. “You got me. Maybe your brain’s telling you not to go be a supervillain.”
“Well, my brain’s gonna be disappointed, then,” Daybreak mumbled.
Royal Gala looked at her incredulously. “Don’t tell me you’re actually gonna do this.”
“It’s the only way they’ll listen to me! If I say I’ll stop being a bad guy if they stop being good guys, they have to stop!”
“That’s ridiculous.” Royal Gala shook her head and stood up. “Sorry, Daybreak, but I can’t have no part of that.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Daybreak grumbled. “Everyone else already left me, anyway.”
“I’m gonna have to tell Luna about this.”
“Go ahead. I bet I’m stronger than her. Maybe she’d like some more time on the moon.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” Daybreak stood up and turned towards Royal Gala with an angry look on her face. “It’s not like we’re friends. Why should I care what happens to your mom? I’m a bad guy, remember?”
An orange spark flashed through Royal Gala’s eyes. “You better watch your mouth.”
“What are you gonna do, throw an apple at me?” Daybreak scoffed. “We both know I’m stronger than you.”
“Did you forget where we are?” An unnatural ripple rolled through Royal Gala’s mane. Suddenly, she stepped forward and shoved Daybreak off of the roof.
Daybreak plummeted. The world spun around her. The rooftop quickly flew up away from her, but strangely, so did the street below. Both ends of her perilous drop seemed to be accelerating away from her at an alarming pace.
She tried to stretch out her wings and catch herself, but something was wrong. They wouldn’t budge.
There was a rush of wind as Royal Gala jumped from the rooftop above and blasted down towards Daybreak. With every second, her mane seemed to come more alive. It left a trail of sparks as she cut through the air that reflected the crackling electricity building up in her unceasing glare.
She didn’t slow down when she reached Daybreak. Instead, she slammed a hoof into Daybreak’s chest and started pushing her down ever faster.
Royal Gala leaned in close to Daybreak and stared into her eyes. “You’d best think hard before you make enemies out of your friends, Nymph,” she growled. Below them, the ground started rapidly approaching. “Remember, you can’t stay awake forever.”
Just before they crashed into the pavement below, Royal Gala waved her free hoof and cut a hole in the world around them, then she threw Daybreak out.