"No. NO! Stop! Don't hurt Luna! Don't you dare hurt my sister!" Yells out a struggling voice. Daybreaker rolls her eyes as she continues to chase after the small yet surprisingly agile blue alicorn.
"Just enjoy the show, Celestia. Nothing can stop us from our goals once your sister is out of the way!" Daybreaker laughs as she fires beam after beam of magic at Luna. Scorched marks appear wherever the lasers hit. She's getting closer to hitting Luna with each blast too. The last one even nicked Luna's left flank!
"Please stop, Mom… please. Stop me. Don't let me hurt my sister!" Celestia shouts from inside her mind, restrained by chains of jealousy, hatred, and emotions. If she could just move, she could stop all this from happening.
"Please! I promise to be good. I'll eat all my veggies and show up to dinner! Please stop!" She tearfully screams out
"Too late for that now, Celestia. Too late. FOR THAT." Daybreaker says quickly as one of her magical blasts hits Luna directly on the back. Luna yelps and screams as she's knocked right out of the sky. Tumbling forward and crash-landing right underneath the castle.
"NOOOO!" Screams out, Celestia.
"And now, you have nothing," Daybreaker says with a chuckle that turns into an evil, maniacal laugh. "I will exist FOREVER! All this strength, all your wasted potential, is mine. As for you. Welllll." She smirks and casts a simple spell on the tiny part of her mind that Celestia inhabits. Celestia groans as she's forced to watch as Luna is shot out of the sky, over and over again.
"You should be a good girl and let the adult handle this. No reason for you to watch this next part after all." Daybreaker taunts before returning her focus to the task at hoof. She folds her wings slightly with grace and poise, gently gliding to the ground as her flaming mane and tail crackle with rainbow light.
"It hurts."
'What hurts?' A little crack rings out
'Everything. Everything hurts.'
A gasp escapes Luna's lips as she regains consciousness, her body flooded with adrenaline. She barely managed to use her wings to block that last blast.
"I'm totally out of magic. It's over." Luna says to herself, tearing up a little bit. Her wings feel like lead, and without her pegasus magic, they won't get her even an inch off the ground, much less help her avoid anything. The blue filly starts to tear up again, she gave it her all, but she still came up short. What can she do against overwhelming power like that? If she had magic, she could at least have put up a fight, but now? Now she's helpless. Utterly helpless.
With a struggle, Luna picks herself up from the ground, but not for any particular reason. After all, she can hardly hold herself up. She just wants to face what's coming with dignity, just like her father taught her.
That's when it hits her. Her father taught her a lot, sure, how to run a country, to not be lazy like her sister, and be a good leader even. But her new mom had taught her something he never did. She taught her how to deal with adversity, how to help other ponies, and most importantly, what to do when you're against overwhelming odds. If she couldn't fight her way out of this, she'd get the only other help she could get right now.
She'd call out to her sister and hope that there was something in there to save both of them. Scanning with her eyes, she sees that Daybreaker is busy with something, causing the filly to quickly look for something she dropped earlier. And there she finds it, underneath some rubble.
Laying on the ground is the draining crystal that Amore gave her. Luna quickly forces some of her life force into her horn to spark any magic she can. The crystal quickly adhered to her small horn with one quick spell.
With blurry vision, Luna stumbles and sits back against the strange, empty pedestal in the middle of the Radiant Empire. "Gotta. Stay. Awake." She says with a grunt, waiting quietly and watching as Daybreaker lands in front of her. Each step closer makes the filly wince a little as fiery hoof steps are left with each passing movement from her older sister.
‘Clip, clop, clip, clop.’ Then silence. Luna grunts as she repositions herself against the pedestal, pushing herself up and sighing. "Can I talk now?"
Daybreaker giggles. "Why? So you can beg your big sister? Going to cry for Mommy?"
Luna shakes her head. "I just want to talk. To Celestia. Please?"
Daybreaker hums. "Seeing how you're so pathetic and weak right now? I don't see how this could help you in any way." She giggles a little bit. "Fine. She can hear you now."
Luna sighs a little bit. "Big sis, I'm… I'm sorry for being such a baby. I just. I.."
Luna blinks a little. Wait. Why was she apologizing again? Did she actually do anything wrong?
-Six months ago, in Twilight's Castle-
Luna happily hops out of bed, rolling quickly and falling into a lump of blankets and a pillow draped over her head. "ACK! Nooo! The blanket monster got me again! Mommmmyyy! Big Sissss! Helpppp!" She whines quickly. Struggling to escape the blanket burrito she found herself in. After a moment, the door to her large room opens, Celestia bursting it open with magic, her horn glowing bright yellow.
"What? WHERE?" She says as she looks around before finally noticing the filly on the ground, stuck inside the blanket enclosure.
Celestia cracks a laugh. "Oh, THAT blanket monster." She giggles a bit as she gently frees Luna from her prison. Or at least, she attempts to. Celestia's magic acuity has never been the best, and even now, she's struggling with all the little knots and ties that formed when the filly fell off the bed.
After a few moments of struggling, the two sisters laugh next to each other, sitting on the defeated blanket monster. Luna smiles and says, "Oh, oh! I almost forgot—" At this point, though, Twilight quickly runs into the room. Celestia's face instantly grimacing.
Twilight would pant a little bit, her body glowing a light blue, signifying that she's merged with Uni. "Is everypony okay?" She says with a pant. Uni splitting their merger after a moment.
Uni would blink. "It seems like the issue was fixed, just like I said, Your Majesty. You were worried about nothing." She sighs a little bit.
Celestia would huff. "I'm literally across the hall, ya know. Course, I would help my sister if she screamed like that." She says to Uni
With an unperturbed blink, Uni responds, "Quite… Anyways, since there is no danger, I'll be taking my leave." She says as she walks up to Twilight.
"You have three meetings before breakfast, do not be late." She says simply before vanishing into whisps of light.
Celestia looks at Twilight with a glare. "Well, my sister is safe, and now I think I'll be going out with my friends." She says sharply, trotting out the door, only to be stopped by Twilight's hoof.
"Why don't you join us for breakfast? I can skip out on a meeting to eat as a family. Uni would understand, I'm sure!" Twilight says with a hopeful expression. But Celestia just rolls her eyes.
"You two have fun. I'm going out." She says coldly, brushing past Twilight. "I'll see you later, Twilight."
Breakfast was really lonely for Luna that day. Very Very lonely.
"Wait. You." Thinking back, Luna remembers what Celestia said to her, why she was so angry, and Luna's little mind finally puts everything together.
"C-Celestia, she's not just our friend! She's our mom now. And Queen of Equestria! She can't always be there for us. She has uhm. Duties? Yeah! Duties that keep her busy! And well." Luna closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.
"Sis, I'm only gonna barely be six years old. Mom and Dad died when I was four." She sniffles a little bit, Daybreaker rolling her eyes. But Celestia, hearing all of this, realizes something.
"I was four! I hardly knew what was going on. All I knew was that Twilight was gonna be taking care of us. It was fun! Really fun!" She says with a grunt as she sits up, carefully charging up her horn with tiny shards of her life force.
-Two days after the deaths of Celestia and Luna's birth Parents-
"WHEEEEE!" Says Luna as she holds onto Twilight's mane, the pair flying around at high speeds around the castle, swerving, weaving, and flying in circles faster than anypony in Equestria ever could! But something was missing. Something, no, somepony important. Oop! Loop de loop! Yayyyyy!
Meanwhile, in Celestia's room, there is no noise, no joy. Just silent sobbing.
"Give her space, Your Majesty. She'll get over it soon." are the only words heard as the sun sets for the night.
"But you were never there. You never came to breakfast, never showed up for lunch, and didn't even come to my birthday party!" Luna croaks out, angry momentarily, before a little crack is heard, making her grunt in pain. "And even then. Even through all of that."
Celestia's deep sorrow by now has already nearly drowned her, almost entirely faded away. But the following words that come out of her sister's mouth shine like a little blue light inside of her broken psyche.
"I always loved you, sis. Always. Even now, you're still my sister and… I wuv you." She says with tears. She was unable to continue speaking from both her injury and her sadness. Luna knows she failed. Her sister likely was long gone by now, and without her trying to fight back, Luna's plan would never work.
Daybreaker laughs heavily, cackling madly. "That was your plan? I swear you're dumber than you look. Although, I suppose you are young. Now, if I remember correctly, there was a little promise in the air. If you were a bad girl, I'd give you a one-way trip to Tartarus!" Daybraker laughs as her horn charges. Luna closed her eyes.
And suddenly, Daybreaker is struggling to control herself. "NO! There's no way something so cheesy could actually have worked!" Suddenly, the fiery pony finds herself in her mindscape with Celestia. Who is fuming, glaring and furious, but most of all, free.
"Now, Celestia, what's the point? We both know I'm much stronger than you." Daybreaker says with a glare. A spark of her horn changed the scenery to a gradient, a fiery red behind her and a lovely yellow behind Celestia. The colors clash in the middle.
Celestia says nothing, though, nothing at all. There are no words. No words could ever voice how she felt at this moment. None except a straightforward phrase.
"Shut up and fight." She says before diving at Daybreaker. The pair fighting within Celestia's mindscape. Lasers, explosions, and fireballs crash everywhere around the area. Celestia not holding anything back at all. She may not be powerful, but this is HER mind! Celestia can be whatever comes to mind. Transforming into her favorite superhero, wondermare, she ties up Daybreaker with a lasso before bucking her high up in the sky. Another quick transformation into Daybreaker herself, she quickly appears above the launched demon, slamming her back toward the ground.
Celestia then makes chase, slamming her hoof right into Daybreaker's falling form before becoming the one pony she knows can't be beaten. With a flash, Daybreaker stares into the face of Twilight Sparkle. With a sudden gasp, Daybreaker quickly slides away in panic.
"You idiot, you'll destroy us both if you use that form here! This is your mind just as much as it is mine!" Daybreaker yells out
Celestia uses her mother's glare. "So be it." The all-powerful alicorn says as she starts charging up her spell.
But she never has to fire it, as suddenly Daybreaker begins to be torn straight from Celestia's Mind. The surprise causes Celestia to return to her usual self as she looks at what Luna is doing.
Luna took her chance. A bolt of powerful magic charging through her horn, glowing a bright red as it was not pure magic, but her life force turned into magic. The magic sparked and sizzled, her eyes blurry and watery.
But she knew that her sister was fighting with her. "As long as my sister is around."
Celesia smiles, causing her body to smile as well before Luna and Celestia both speak simultaneously, "We'll never lose to the likes of YOU!" Celestia then joins Luna's magic, the beam firing straight into her chest as an intense, dirty flow of dark magic starts to drain out of Celestia's body. A scream comes out of her mouth, but not from pain.
It was a scream of fear, not from Celestia, but from Daybreaker. "YOU CAN'T ESCAPE ME, CELESTIA! I AM YOU! YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME!" She yells out as she's ripped from Celestia's mindscape.
The black magic flows violently from Celstia's body, into the crystal, before the blast thickens as Daybreaker is removed entirely. Luna yelps and braces herself on the pedestal as the last of the dark soup gets drained by her horn and the crystal on it.
The draining crystal glows brightly as it shifts from a dark black to a beautiful, radiant color, floating into the air and spinning violently as it grows and grows. Beams of magic fire off in all directions as the clouds of the north begin to be pushed away by some force of magic. After a bright, powerful flash, a crystalline heart settles above the pedestal. The heart is no bigger than Celestia's head, but the magic stored inside is pure and good.
Celestia's body returns to normal with the blast of magic. Meanwhile, Luna's injuries are healed. The pair became crystalline like the other crystal ponies, although the enchantment likely wouldn't last forever. Celestia blinks and looks herself over before smiling. "We did it!" She says with a hop. Expecting her sister to do the same.
When she doesn't hear her little sister, she quickly rushes over. "No, no, no, no! Please. Be okay!" She levitates Luna and quickly listens to her heart. Exhaling a sigh of relief when she hears it still beating. Even then, she rapidly runs around the city, looking for a doctor to look at her sister. She doesn't even notice the glares and angry looks of the population. She knows she deserves them, but right now.
"Luna. Please be alright." She says with a crack in her voice, watching the doctor examine her sister.
Finally, Celestia sheds a tear for someone other than herself. Sometimes lessons are learned only when you realize what you have to lose.
The book's page turns yet again. The flames around the book die down, but the pages seem almost sad.